Altruism, or the act of helping someone without expectations, is a part of everyday life. The debate on whether it exists or not is hotly debated, but I'm more interested in what factors influence a person showing altruism. Some factors to consider are gender, age, heredity, or simply whether empathy for others affects people's tendency to be altruistic. The first factor that has an effect on altruism is a person's age. A two-part study conducted by Midlarsky and Hannah (1989) shows patterns of altruistic behavior depending on a person's age. The authors of this study defined empathy in a previous study as “a behavior that brings benefits, despite apparent costs and in the absence of extrinsic rewards for the helper” (Midlarsky & Hannah, 1989). To test their definition of empathy they conducted two naturalistic studies. The observed participants ranged in age from 5 to over 75 years. In both studies a woman was placed in a booth that could only allow one person to participate at a time. Around the stand were posters asking for donations to support a charity that helps children who have birth defects. “The study was designed to investigate the relationship between age and donations” (Midlarsky & Hannah, 1989). The experiment was conducted over two weeks and in several locations. The first study found that when participants were given the option to donate money, the 35 to 64 age groups donated significantly more than all younger groups. They also found that participants between the ages of 65 and 74 made the most donations, including those observed who were older than 75. The authors found this result strange, so they decided to repeat the study but instead of collecting money they would... .in the center of the paper... were both positive and negative. After all activities concluded, the results revealed patterns between empathy and altruism. The data findings revealed that there was a significant difference in outcomes for others between the no empathy group and the high and low empathy groups. This finding means that those who were given any type of empathy condition were more altruistic towards others than those who had no empathy towards other participants. This supports Van Lange's idea that empathy activates altruistic motivation. No connection was found between empathy and altruism, and no significant correlation was found between empathy and justice either. Gender is another factor in the effects on altruism. It has been found in many studies that girls are perceived as more altruistic towards both their peers and older adults.