Toward a psychology of intergenerational futures thinking: Longitudinal evidence linking intergenerational dispositions to collective action for future humanity

How do people sustain concern for future generations when thinking about existential threats that will face those to come? Across two longitudinal studies spanning 12 months, we examine the stability and behavioral relevance of “intergenerational futures thinking,” a constellation of psychological constructs theorized to motivate long-term prosocial action: intergenerational concern (IGC), impartial intergenerational beneficence (IIB), obligation to future generations, moral concern, and legacy motivation. Supporting their theorized but underexplored role as durable dispositions, all constructs show high temporal stability. And, although based on reported real-world behavior over the course of the year, IGC predicts greater future-oriented collective action but not general charitable giving. Moral concern and legacy motivation, in contrast, predict both charitable giving and collective action, while obligation predicts collective action only. Because reported donations were general rather than future-targeted, this design allowed us to test which intergenerational traits spill over into broader prosociality, speaking to ongoing debates about whether prioritizing future generations reduces concern for the present. Relatedly, we find that IIB, which captures sustained regard for future people regardless of their temporal distance, associates with greater moral concern for present-day outgroups and nature. This suggests that concern for the future and present can coexist, aligning with a theorized view of a “moral circle” that expands increasingly outward from the self. Finally, while showing trait-like stability, IGC also exhibits reciprocal relationships with both obligation and moral concern, suggesting that components of intergenerational futures thinking may mutually reinforce one another to sustain long-term ethical engagement.