Fig. 4. In-group preference partially explains older adults’ larger donations to national charities but smaller donations to international charities.
Structural equation models of age effects on each prosocial behavior measure showed significant indirect effects of in-group preference. The models included indirect effects for all six trait factors, as well as the relevant control variable, but here we show a simplified diagram (see Supplementary Fig. 6 for the full model; Supplementary Table 9 for effect sizes—standardized β coefficients). Path a: older age predicted higher in-group preference scores (Supplementary Table 9a). Path b: in-group preference was positively related to distancing and national donations but negatively related to international donations (Supplementary Table 9b). Path c: direct effects of age were also positive for distancing and national donations but negative for international donations, as shown in all analyses (Supplementary Table 9c). Dashed lines show paths for indirect effects. Solid lines show direct effects of age on each prosocial behavior. Positive effects on prosocial behaviors are in red; negative effects are in blue.