Life span theories postulate that altruistic tendencies increase in adult development, but the mechanisms and moderators of age-related differences in altruism are poorly understood. In particular, it is unclear to what extent age differences in altruism reflect age differences in altruistic motivation, in resources such as education and income, or in socially desirable responding. This meta-analysis combined 16 studies assessing altruism in younger and older adults (N = 1,581). As expected, results revealed an age-related difference in altruism (Mg = 0.61, p < .001), with older adults showing greater altruism than younger adults. Demographic moderators (income, education, sex distribution) did not significantly moderate this effect, nor did aspects of the study methodology that may drive socially desirable responding. However, the age effect was moderated by the average age of the older sample, such that studies with young-old samples showed a larger age effect than studies with old-old samples. These findings are consistent with the theoretical prediction of age-related increases in altruistic motivation, but they also suggest a role for resources (e.g., physical, cognitive, social) that may decline in advanced old age. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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衰老和利他主义：荟萃分析。

寿命理论认为，利他主义倾向在成年人的发展中会增加，但是对与年龄有关的利他主义差异的机制和调节者知之甚少。尤其是，尚不清楚利他主义中的年龄差异在多大程度上反映了利他动机，教育和收入等资源中或社会期望的回应中的年龄差异。这项荟萃分析结合了16项评估年轻人和老年人的利他行为的研究（N = 1,581）。正如预期的那样，结果显示出利他主义与年龄有关（Mg = 0.61，p <.001），老年人的利他主义比青年人更大。人口统计学的主持人（收入，教育程度，性别分布）并没有显着缓解这种影响，研究方法的某些方面也没有推动社会满意的回应。然而，年龄影响被较老样本的平均年龄所缓和，因此，与较老样本相比，对较年轻样本的研究显示出更大的年龄影响。这些发现与理论上与年龄相关的利他动机增加的预测相一致，但它们也暗示了在老年晚期可能会下降的资源（例如，身体，认知，社会）的作用。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2021 APA，保留所有权利）。