Impartial Intergenerational Beneficence Predicts Interest in High-Impact, Long-Term Oriented Careers
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People spend around 80,000 hours working in their lifetimes, making career choices highly impactful for personal and societal outcomes. This research explores whether impartial intergenerational beneficence (IIB)—the belief that future lives deserve high and equal moral consideration to present lives—predicts interest in future-oriented, high-impact careers. In Study 1 (N=1,133), undergraduates with IIB showed greater intention to pursue long-term impact careers. In Study 2 (N=916), working adults with IIB perceived their careers as more beneficial to future society, though external/third-party ratings did not confirm this. Study 3 (N=816) found that an IIB-based thought experiment increased concern for future generations, but not career-related behavior. Individual differences in concern for future generations predicted increased interest in pursuing impactful paths. Across these three studies, IIB, in addition to intergenerational concern, was consistently linked to long-term career intentions, suggesting it may be a key factor in shaping future-oriented, high-impact careers.
