Study On Intergenerational Altruism From The Perspective Of Life History

There are important issues in society that affect not only everyone today,but future generations as well.Because of the limited amount of resources,we often face many intergenerational dilemmas,which require us to balance the interests of the present individual with those of future generations.To ensure the benefit of future generations,current generations have to reduce or give up consumption and make certain sacrifices to occupy current wealth or natural resources.Such behavior is called intergenerational altruism,or intergenerational benevolence.It is from the perspective of resource allocation and tradeoff that life history theory discusses the different behavioral strategies developed by individuals who survive and develop in different environments and how they affect individual resource allocation.This study aims to explore the influence of life-history strategies on intergenerational altruism from the perspective of evolution by controlling for genetic relationship and environmental cues.Study 1 explores the differences in generational money decisions among individuals with different life-history strategies in the face of different beneficial relationships.Study 2 explored the differences in environmental donation tasks among individuals with different life-history strategies in the face of different beneficial relationships,and further verified the impact of life-history strategies on intergenerational altruism.Study 3 explores the influence of environmental harshness(family socioeconomic status)on intergenerational altruism in environmental cues and explores the mediating role of life-history strategies.Study 4 explored the influence of environmental unpredictability under manipulation on intergenerational altruism in the face of different beneficial relationships.Study 5 further explored the influence of perceived environmental unpredictability after experiencing major public health safety events in real situations on intergenerational altruism under different beneficial relationships.The results are as follows :(1)In the intergenerational money decision,he intergenerational altruism rate of individuals with the fast-life history strategy is lower,and they show more preference for the current self-benefit;However,the intergenerational altruism rate of individuals with slow-life history strategy was higher,and they paid more attention to the benefits of offspring.And when the beneficiaries were their own kin,they were more altruistic.(2)In the environmental donation task,the intergenerational altruism rate of individuals with slow-life history strategy was higher,and they also showed more intergenerational altruism;When the beneficiaries were their own kin,they were also more altruistic than made decisions for others.(3)Environmental harshness(family socio-economic status)can positively predict the intergenerational altruism of individuals,in which the life-history strategy plays a completely mediating role.(4)Under the condition that the primal environment is predictable,individuals in the primal group with predictable environment have a higher intergenerational altruism rate and exhibit more intergenerational altruism than those in the primal group with unpredictable environment.The slow life history strategy also showed more intergenerational altruism and the most intergenerational altruism when the beneficiaries were their own kin.(5)The intergenerational rate of individuals who perceive their environment to be more unpredictable after experiencing a major public health safety event is higher and shows less intergenerational altruism.The slow life history strategy was more intergenerational altruistic than the fast life history strategy,but there was no significant difference in intergenerational altruistic rate among different beneficial relationships.In conclusion,this study shows that the life-history strategy can affect the intergenerational altruistic behavior of individuals,and kinship can promote intergenerational altruism.Life history strategy is influenced by environmental harshness and environmental unpredictability.Among them,family socio-economic status,as a symbol of environmental harshness,can positively predict the intergenerational altruism of individuals.And when individuals perceive that the environment is stable and predictable,they are also more likely to focus on the longterm future,which makes them more intergenerational altruistic.