Age Differences in Prosocial Behavior Depend on Effort Costs.

In everyday life, many prosocial contexts depend on effort expenditure. When prosocial activities are effortful, older adults are less willing to engage in prosocial behavior, particularly when reward likelihood is low, and instead focus on resource conservation. In the absence of such effort costs, older adults are more prosocial than younger adults. This work suggests that older adults may prefer to engage in prosocial behavior more than younger adults, but physical resource constraints may limit their ability to engage in such effortful prosocial activities.