Known horizons, as future-oriented cues, help individuals to manage vulnerable resources

Over four studies (N=2,497), we test whether informational cues can improve resource management strategies while individuals harvest from a replenishing but depletable resource, returning monetary rewards. To succeed, individuals need to learn about the dynamics (and vulnerability) of the resource while avoiding the long-term costs of early bad decisions. Future-orienting information about the potential availability of a resource; its horizon – operationalized as the maximum number of remaining harvesting opportunities – dramatically improved individual resource outcomes (in Experiments 1 and 2). This future-oriented cue did not provide information about the dynamics of the resource that could be used to infer an improved resource management strategy and its benefits are not transitory: informational 'nudges' about the resource horizon continue to improve outcomes over multiple encounters (Experiment 3). Finally, we experimentally compare two psychological theories to better understand the psychological mechanism underlying why the cue improves sustainability; we find evidence that the cue primes future-oriented thinking (Experiment 4). These findings indicate that when individuals try to explore and manage a personal resource in uncertain environments where early missteps have long-term adverse consequences, simple future-orienting cues about potential resource longevity improve harvesting decisions.