Abstract
Social discount functions have been used as a quantitative description of altruistic choice. In support of kin altruism theories, previous research has found that participants discounted outcomes less to relatives than nonrelatives. However, weaknesses in those analyses, such as disproportionate value comparisons, limit the validity of those findings. The current study sought to amend those weaknesses by using individual social discount rates and explicit identification of the beneficiary to assess differences in altruistic choice. Like previous research, results demonstrated the same direction of altruism in favor of relatives, but a multilevel analysis demonstrated no significant difference between discounting towards relationship types. Moreover, explicit identification of beneficiaries did not alter altruism significantly. Implications for future research and determinants of altruistic choice are discussed.