A Review of Social Discounting: The Impact of Social Distance on Altruism

Altruistic choice is influenced by the relationship between the person making the choice and the recipient, and such relationships are based on an intangible quality known as social distance. This review examines the research on social distance as a part of the social discounting task, which employs behavioral economic methods to quantify the impact of social relationships on altruistic choice. The review examines the origins of the social discounting task and the subsequent work in laboratory simulations and as applied to clinical populations. The application of social discounting and social distance to the study of altruism is discussed.