Legacies, Immortality, and the Future: The Psychology of Intergenerational Altruism

Acting on the behalf of future generations can require nontrivial sacrifice on the part of the present generation. Yet, people can gain important social psychological benefits from such acts, such as experiencing a connection to an entity that will presumably continue to exist in the social environment after they themselves are no longer a part of it. Consequently, intergenerational beneficence can help people to fill the basic human need for immortality striving. This is a benefit that is not as easily achieved by altruistic behaviors toward contemporary others. Based on some key insights from Terror Management Theory (TMT), I postulate that under conditions of mortality salience, people will demonstrate more altruism toward future generations than toward needy contemporaries − contrary to what might be expected based on the existing literature on intertemporal choice. Thus, the temporal aspect of intergenerational contexts may actually promote rather than hinder altruistic tendencies under certain conditions.