Department of Social Psychology, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2012 Jul;38(7):835-44. doi: 10.1177/0146167212442970. Epub 2012 Apr 6.
People are often encouraged to focus on the future and strive for long-term goals. This noted, the authors argue that this future orientation is associated with intolerance of personal uncertainty, as people usually cannot be certain that their efforts will pay off. To be able to tolerate personal uncertainty, people adhere strongly to the belief in a just world, paradoxically resulting in harsher reactions toward innocent victims. In three experiments, the authors show that a future orientation indeed leads to more negative evaluations of an innocent victim (Study 1), enhances intolerance of personal uncertainty (Study 2), and that experiencing personal uncertainty leads to more negative evaluations of a victim (Study 3). So, while a future orientation enables people to strive for long-term goals, it also leads them to be harsher toward innocent victims. One underlying mechanism causing these reactions is intolerance of personal uncertainty, associated with a future orientation.
人们经常被鼓励专注于未来并追求长期目标。然而，作者指出，这种未来导向与对个人不确定性的不容忍有关，因为人们通常无法确定自己的努力是否会有回报。为了能够容忍个人的不确定性，人们强烈坚持公正世界的信念，这反而导致对无辜受害者的反应更加严厉。在三个实验中，作者表明，未来导向确实会导致对无辜受害者的更负面评价（研究 1），增强对个人不确定性的不容忍（研究 2），并且个人不确定性的体验会导致对受害者的更负面评价（研究 3）。因此，虽然未来导向使人们能够为长期目标而努力，但它也使他们对无辜的受害者更加苛刻。导致这些反应的一个潜在机制是对个人不确定性的不容忍，这与未来导向有关。
