scholarly journals Effects of age-related differences in empathy on social economic decision-making

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 822-833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janelle N. Beadle ◽  
Sergio Paradiso ◽  
Christopher Kovach ◽  
Linnea Polgreen ◽  
Natalie L. Denburg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Reactivity Index ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Economic Decision ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Economic Decision Making

ABSTRACTBackground: The ways in which aging affects social economic decision-making is a central issue in the psychology of aging. To examine age-related differences in social economic decision-making as a function of empathy, 80 healthy volunteers participated in the Repeated Fixed Opponent Ultimatum Game (UG-R). Previous economic decision-making research has shown that in younger adults empathy is associated with prosocial behavior. The effects of empathy on older adult social economic decision-making are not well understood.Methods: On each of 20 consecutive trials in the UG-R, one player (“Proposer”) splits $10 with another player (“Responder”) who chooses either to accept (whereby both receive the proposed division) or reject (whereby neither receives anything). Trait cognitive and emotional empathy were measured using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index.Results: UG-R data were examined as a function of age and cognitive empathy. For “unfair” offers (i.e. offers less than $5), older Responders with high cognitive empathy showed less prosocial behavior and obtained greater payoffs than younger Responders with high cognitive empathy.Conclusions: High levels of cognitive empathy may differentially affect economic decision-making behavior in younger and older adults. For older adults, high cognitive empathy may play a role in obtaining high financial payoffs while for younger adults it may instead be involved in facilitating social relationships.

Prosocial behavior in aging: which factors can explain age-related differences in social-economic decision making?

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 1747-1757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessia Rosi ◽  
Marta Nola ◽  
Serena Lecce ◽  
Elena Cavallini
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Practical Implication ◽  
Dictator Game ◽  
Reasoning Ability ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Economic Decision Making

ABSTRACTObjectives:Older adults tend to exhibit more prosocial behavior than younger adults. However, little research has focused on understanding the factors that may explain such differences in the social decision-making process. The first aim was to examine if, and to what degree, the content of social information about a recipient has an impact on young vs. older adults’ prosocial behavior. The second aim was to understand if empathic concern, Theory of Mind, and reasoning explain the (expected) age differences in prosociality.Design:Cross-sectional study.Setting:The study was conducted in northern Italy in a laboratory setting.Participants:Forty-eight younger adults (Mage = 23.29; SD = 2.20) and 48 older adults (Mage = 70.19; SD = 5.13).Measurements:Prosocial behavior was measured using the Dictator Game in which participants split a sum of money with recipients presented with four levels of description: no information, physical description, positive psychological description, and negative psychological description. In addition, participants performed tasks on emphatic concern, Theory of Mind, and reasoning.Results:Results showed that older adults are more prosocial than younger adults in the Dictator Game. This finding was evident when the recipient was described with positive psychological and physical features. This pattern of results was statistically explained by the reduction in reasoning ability.Conclusion:These findings suggest a relationship between age-related reduction in reasoning ability and older adults’ prosocial behavior. The theoretical and practical implication of the empirical findings are discussed.

Measuring the subjective cost of listening effort using a discounting task

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drew Jordan McLaughlin ◽  
Todd Samuel Braver ◽  
Jonathan E. Peelle
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Monetary Reward ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Listening Effort ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Economic Decision Making

Purpose: Objective measures of listening effort have been gaining prominence, as they provide metrics to quantify the difficulty of understanding speech under a variety of circumstances. A key challenge has been to develop paradigms that enable the complementary measurement of subjective listening effort in a quantitatively precise manner. In the present study, we introduce a novel decision-making paradigm to examine age-related and individual differences in subjective effort during listening.Method: Older and younger adults were presented with spoken sentences mixed with speech-shaped noise at multiple signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). On each trial subjects were offered the choice between completing an easier listening trial (presented at +20 dB SNR) for a smaller monetary reward, or a harder listening trial (presented at either +4, 0, -4, -8, or -12 dB SNR) for a greater monetary reward. By varying the amount of the reward offered for the easier option, the subjective value of performing effortful listening trials at each SNR could be assessed. Results: Older adults discounted the value of effortful listening to a greater degree than young adults, opting to accept less money in order to avoid more difficult SNRs. Additionally, older adults with poorer hearing and smaller working memory capacities were more likely to choose easier trials; however, in younger adults, no relationship with hearing or working memory was found. Self-reported measures of economic status did not affect these relationships. Conclusion: These findings suggest that subjective listening effort depends on factors including, but not necessarily limited to, hearing and working memory. Additionally, this study demonstrates that economic decision-making paradigms can be a useful approach for assessing subjective listening effort, and may prove beneficial in future research.

scholarly journals Age-Related Differences in Social Economic Decision Making: The Ultimatum Game

2012 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 356-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phoebe E. Bailey ◽  
Ted Ruffman ◽  
Peter G. Rendell
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Ultimatum Game ◽  
Economic Decision ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Economic Decision Making

scholarly journals Measuring the Subjective Cost of Listening Effort Using a Discounting Task

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-347
Author(s):  
Drew J. McLaughlin ◽  
Todd S. Braver ◽  
Jonathan E. Peelle
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Monetary Reward ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Listening Effort ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Economic Decision Making

Purpose Objective measures of listening effort have been gaining prominence, as they provide metrics to quantify the difficulty of understanding speech under a variety of circumstances. A key challenge has been to develop paradigms that enable the complementary measurement of subjective listening effort in a quantitatively precise manner. In this study, we introduce a novel decision-making paradigm to examine age-related and individual differences in subjective effort during listening. Method Older and younger adults were presented with spoken sentences mixed with speech-shaped noise at multiple signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). On each trial, subjects were offered the choice between completing an easier listening trial (presented at +20 dB SNR) for a smaller monetary reward and completing a harder listening trial (presented at either +4, 0, −4, −8, or −12 dB SNR) for a greater monetary reward. By varying the amount of the reward offered for the easier option, the subjective value of performing effortful listening trials at each SNR could be assessed. Results Older adults discounted the value of effortful listening to a greater degree than young adults, opting to accept less money in order to avoid more difficult SNRs. Additionally, older adults with poorer hearing and smaller working memory capacities were more likely to choose easier trials; however, in younger adults, no relationship with hearing or working memory was found. Self-reported measures of economic status did not affect these relationships. Conclusions These findings suggest that subjective listening effort depends on factors including, but not necessarily limited to, hearing and working memory. Additionally, this study demonstrates that economic decision-making paradigms can be a useful approach for assessing subjective listening effort and may prove beneficial in future research.

Age-Related Differences in Motivational Integration and Cognitive Control

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Marianne Yee ◽  
Sarah L Adams ◽  
Asad Beck ◽  
Todd Samuel Braver
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Monetary Reward ◽  
Potential Candidate ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Cognitive Task Performance

Motivational incentives play an influential role in value-based decision-making and cognitive control. A compelling hypothesis in the literature suggests that the brain integrates the motivational value of diverse incentives (e.g., motivational integration) into a common currency value signal that influences decision-making and behavior. To investigate whether motivational integration processes change during healthy aging, we tested older (N=44) and younger (N=54) adults in an innovative incentive integration task paradigm that establishes dissociable and additive effects of liquid (e.g., juice, neutral, saltwater) and monetary incentives on cognitive task performance. The results reveal that motivational incentives improve cognitive task performance in both older and younger adults, providing novel evidence demonstrating that age-related cognitive control deficits can be ameliorated with sufficient incentive motivation. Additional analyses revealed clear age-related differences in motivational integration. Younger adult task performance was modulated by both monetary and liquid incentives, whereas monetary reward effects were more gradual in older adults and more strongly impacted by trial-by-trial performance feedback. A surprising discovery was that older adults shifted attention from liquid valence toward monetary reward throughout task performance, but younger adults shifted attention from monetary reward toward integrating both monetary reward and liquid valence by the end of the task, suggesting differential strategic utilization of incentives. Together these data suggest that older adults may have impairments in incentive integration, and employ different motivational strategies to improve cognitive task performance. The findings suggest potential candidate neural mechanisms that may serve as the locus of age-related change, providing targets for future cognitive neuroscience investigations.

The neural mechanisms of affect infusion in social economic decision-making: A mediating role of the anterior insula

NeuroImage ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katia M. Harlé ◽  
Luke J. Chang ◽  
Mascha van 't Wout ◽  
Alan G. Sanfey
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Anterior Insula ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Economic Decision ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Economic Decision Making

scholarly journals Social economic decision-making across the lifespan: An fMRI investigation

2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (7) ◽  
pp. 1416-1424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katia M. Harlé ◽  
Alan G. Sanfey
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Economic Decision ◽  
Economic Decision Making

Strive to Win or Not to Lose? Age-Related Differences in Framing Effects on Effort-Based Decision-Making

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (10) ◽  
pp. 2095-2105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaileigh A Byrne ◽  
Reza Ghaiumy Anaraky
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Framing Effects ◽  
Loss Prevention ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Trial Basis ◽  
High Effort

Abstract Objectives This study sought to assess how framing effects modulate age-related differences in effort-based decision-making. Consistent with the selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) model’s loss prevention account of aging, we predicted that older adults would be more willing to select high-effort options in loss contexts than gain contexts. Method Older and younger adults completed the effort expenditure for rewards task (EEfRT) in either a gain or loss context. The EEfRT is an effort-based decision-making paradigm in which participants choose between a low-effort, “easy” option and a high-effort, “hard” option for several trials. The probability and value of an outcome varies on a trial-by-trial basis. Results The results supported our prediction and the SOC model. Older adults chose more high-effort, difficult options in loss frames than gain frames. Older adults also chose more low-effort, easy options than younger adults in gain contexts, but did not differ from younger adults in loss contexts. Discussion These findings demonstrate that framing effects impact older adults’ effort-based decisions. Older adults appear willing to incur a greater “cost” in the form of effort to prevent a loss than to attain a reward.

The Influence of Aging Stereotype on Young Adults’ Decision-making

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingting Liu ◽  
Cai Xing
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Ultimatum Game ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Stereotype Content ◽  
Economic Decision Making ◽  
The Social ◽  
Psychological Mechanism

Nowadays, the interactions between older adults and younger adults in social-economic decision-making are growing, which attracts lots of attention from psychology researchers. Pioneering findings have shown that the younger adults will accept more unfair offers from the older providers and accept them with being less angry. As suggested by previous research, the aging stereotype towards older adults might play a role in this process. Based on these results, the current research takes these findings a step further and tries to find the underlying psychological mechanism using the widely used Ultimatum Game (UG). Experiment 1 replicated the experiments of Bailey and colleagues (2013) under the Chinese culture and found that younger adults were less motivated to earn money when receiving offers from the old adults in the task. Experiment 2 primed four types of aging stereotypes (high capability & high warmth, high capability & low warmth, low capability & high warmth, and low capability & low warmth) using reading materials before they started the UG. Younger adults were told to the offer were from either older or younger adults. The results showed that a) for fair offers, the aging stereotypes did not affect younger adults’ acceptance rate, level of anger, and their motivations to earn money from their younger peers; b) when the unfair offers that were from the older adults: priming high capability and high warmth aging stereotype led to the lowest accept rate, while priming low capability and low warmth aging stereotype led to the highest accept rate of the offer; high capability and low warmth, than low capability and high warmth, stereotype makes participants felt angrier when receiving the unfair offers, and participants reported higher motivation to earn money after being primed with high capability and low warmth than that being primed with low capability and low warmth stereotype of older adults. Interpretations of the current findings were discussed with the Social Identity Theory, Social Comparison, and the Stereotype Content Model.

Unilateral hand contractions produce motivational biases in social economic decision making.

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katia M. Harlé ◽  
Alan G. Sanfey
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Economic Decision ◽  
Economic Decision Making
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