The Motivation to Protect Future Generations as a Source of Meaning and Mental Well-Being

Helping others confers mental-wellness benefits for helpers themselves. But some people extend their prosocial motivation beyond the present to distant future generations. Do people who show this individual difference experience the benefits of more common prosociality, or is the motivation to protect future generations a psychological burden? Across three studies (N=1,940), we find that future-oriented prosocial motivation correlates with greater meaning, life satisfaction, and flourishing, even after accounting for self-focused future-oriented constructs. These associations are primarily driven by impact-oriented legacy motivation––the desire to make a meaningful contribution––rather than reputational concerns about being remembered. Individuals displaying impartial intergenerational beneficence (IIB)––a sustained concern for all future generations––exhibit particularly strong engagement with impact-driven legacy concerns, which in turn predict well-being. As future-oriented prosocial motivation was not associated with lower anxiety or depression, this individual difference may reflect both an psychological burden and a source of fulfillment.