Social Distance and Delay Exert Multiple Control over Altruistic Choices

We evaluated the degree to which delay to reinforcement and social distance concurrently influenced altruistic choices within a discounting paradigm. Forty participants completed two discounting tasks in a repeated measures design. In the SELF task, delay was parametrically imposed on the participant; in the OTHER task, delay was parametrically imposed on the hypothetical other. Results of a multilevel analysis of indifference data supported a...