Social and cognitive predictors of prosociality in UK adolescents and young adults

In this paper, we report a multi-component battery of behavioural tasks and self-report measures that examined developmental differences in prosociality between UK-based adolescents (N = 100, aged 11–15) and young adults (N = 100, aged 18–36). We also assessed how socio-cognitive mechanisms—including perspective-taking, working memory, inhibitory control, and social network characteristics—contribute to prosociality, and whether these contributions vary by age. Analyses distinguished between cognitive and social components of working memory and inhibition, identifying their unique predictive roles. Young adults showed significantly greater prosociality and outperformed adolescents across all socio-cognitive measures. Multigroup analyses revealed that cognitive and social working memory, and social inhibition predicted prosociality across both groups. However, social networks were more strongly linked to prosociality in adolescents, while perspective-taking played a greater role in young adults. These findings underscore the distinct roles of cognitive and social factors across different developmental stages.