Concern for Future Generations Predicts Present-Day Extraordinary Altruism: A Case Study of Organ Donorship

Are concern for future generations and present-day altruism at odds? Across three studies, wechallenge the common assumption of a tradeoff between future-oriented concern and immediateprosocial action. Drawing on theories of moral expansiveness, we find that individuals who caremore about the far future—as measured by “intergenerational concern” and “impartialintergenerational beneficence”—are also more likely to engage in or express interest in organdonation, a costly and urgent form of present-day altruism. In a large-scale survey (Study 1), apreregistered experiment (Study 2), and a comparison of living organ donors withdemographically-similar controls (Study 3), concern for future generations predicted comfortdiscussing donation, intent to register, and actual donor status. These findings deepenpsychological understandings of prosocial concern across time and contribute preliminary—albeit correlational—evidence for a novel, theoretically-grounded pathway for increasing donorregistration. Rather than competing, concern for future generations and present prosociality tendto reinforce one another, offering new insights for solving pressing global health crises and farfuturesocietal challenges alike.