Welcome to the Social relationships, Health, and Altruism Research (SHARE) Lab at UC Davis!

Older adults are often portrayed as recipients of care, but they can also give and contribute! Our goal is to understand how and why older adults help others, and whether these helping behaviors may build older adults’ resilience against age-related declines and promote healthy aging. We examine formal volunteering, informal helping (everyday support), and intensive caregiving, along with other aspects of social relationships (e.g., positive encounters, interpersonal tensions, coping strategies). We are also interested in individual differences in these social behaviors with a specific focus on empathy, the ability to share and understand others’ emotions.

Our research primarily draws on survey methods, observational studies, daily diaries, ecological momentary assessments, and accelerometer data collection techniques.

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