Law Kyle Fiore, Syropoulos Stylianos, Coleman Matthew, Gainsburg Izzy, O'Connor Brendan Bo
Department of Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY, USA.
The Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2024 Oct 29:1461672241284324. doi: 10.1177/01461672241284324.
Humanity's long-term welfare may lie in the hands of those who are presently living, raising the question of whether people today hold the generations of tomorrow in their moral circles. Five studies (N = 1652; Prolific) reveal present-oriented bias in the moral standing of future generations, with greater perceived moral obligation, moral concern, and prosocial intentions for proximal relative to distal future targets. Yet, present-oriented bias appears stronger for socially close compared with socially distant targets and for human targets relative to non-human animals and entities in nature. Individual differences, including longtermism beliefs and subjective imaginative vividness, predict greater concern for and obligation to the future. Likewise, concern and obligation predict greater future-oriented generosity. Our studies are among the first to explore moral considerations for targets across deep temporal expanses, reconcile conflicting evidence in the extant literature on moral judgment and future-thinking, and offer practical implications for bettering the shared societal future.
人类的长期福祉可能掌握在当代人的手中，这就引发了一个问题：当今的人们是否将后代纳入了他们的道德范畴。五项研究（N = 1652；来自Prolific平台）揭示了在对后代道德地位的认知上存在着注重当下的偏差，相对于远期未来目标，人们对近期未来目标有着更强的道德义务感、道德关怀和亲社会意图。然而，与社会距离较远的目标相比，注重当下的偏差在社会距离较近的目标中表现得更为强烈；与非人类动物及自然中的实体相比，在人类目标中这种偏差更为明显。个体差异，包括长期主义信念和主观想象的生动程度，预示着对未来有更多的关怀和义务。同样，关怀和义务预示着更具未来导向性的慷慨。我们的研究是首批探索跨越深远时间跨度的目标的道德考量的研究之一，调和了现有文献中关于道德判断和未来思维的相互矛盾的证据，并为改善共同的社会未来提供了实际意义。
