Your concern for the future affects your actions. All else being equal, people typically prefer
things that are enjoyable in the short-term to things that are beneficial in
the long-term, but are less pleasant in the short-term. That is why people continue to overeat and
drink to excess even though it can be harmful in the long-run. It is also why people may opt against healthy
foods in the short-term and may opt out of regular exercise.
One thing that needs to be explained is why some people are
willing to do what is best for them in the long-run while others are not. There is a stable tendency for some people to
be more concerned with the future consequences of their actions than others. Indeed, there are two kinds of questions that
you can ask people to assess their concern for the future. One focuses on how much people care about
what is going to happen to them in the future.
The other is the degree to which they are focused on the benefit they
will get from an action right now.
These questions predicting how likely it is that someone will
exercise or eat healthy food does not explain much by itself. It just says that people who are generally
concerned about the consequences of their actions for the future seem to share
that concern across many aspects of their life.
Why this concern for the future influences people's actions? The
questions about people's concern for the future predict people's motivational
outlook. There are two broad
motivational orientations. A promotion
focus leads people to concentrate on potential positive things in the world and
on the person they would ideally like to be.
A prevention focus leads people to concentrate on potential negative
things in the world and on their responsibilities. A focus on who people would
like to be ideally might allow those people to think about their future selves
more effectively than a focus on their responsibilities. People who express a concern for the future
consequences of their actions might have a stronger promotion focus than those
who tend not to be concerned about the future consequences of their actions. The degree to which people are focused on the
present benefits of their actions should have no reliable relationship to
people's overall motivational orientation.
The more people are concerned with the consequences of their
future actions, the more they tend to have a promotion focus. This promotion focus predicts their positive
attitude toward the healthy behavior, which in turn predicts their intention to
perform that behavior. Overall, there
are people who tend to take care of themselves.
They are concerned about the future consequences of their actions. That concern influences their motivational
state.
We need to know the true relationship between motivational state
and concern for the future. Does concern
for the future causes people to take a promotion focus or does it work the
other way around? Does viewing the world
in terms of potential gains make one more concerned about the future? If you manipulate someone's motivational
state, will that really change how much they pursue activities with long-term
rewards? There are many ways to affect
whether someone adopts a promotion mindset.
Would these methods get people to take better care of themselves?
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