This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Does helping people struggling to survive today make any difference for future generations? New research from the University of Utah has documented evidence that it does.
Rather than viewing present-day poverty and long-term risks as competing priorities, the research team led by psychologist Kyle Fiore Law sees them as interconnected. "In debates about the future, there's often an assumed trade-off where money spent on people who are alive today is not money spent on protecting future generations," said Law, an assistant professor of psychology. Through a series of three studies, his team tested that assumption and found the opposite may be the case.
"There is often an assumption that investments in education and the sciences aren't going to lead to profits or that investing in climate change solutions is going to mean a cost for businesses," Law continued. "These things might be linked together. The more capacity people have in the present to meet their basic daily needs, the more they can start looking at higher-order, loftier goals about safeguarding the future, and they'll actually have the capacity to make a difference." Law and his collaborators do not argue that people experiencing poverty are responsible for protecting the future.
Instead, they argue that poverty and inequality themselves can be viewed as intergenerational problems. Reducing economic hardship can not only improve people's lives in the present but also foster conditions in which future-oriented thinking and generosity are more likely to flourish. The results appear in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
The researchers examined the relationship between economic hardship and concern for future generations in three studies. The first two relied on existing survey datasets, while the third entailed an economic decision-making experiment conducted by the researchers. "It's more of a systems-level finding that countries that have lower levels of poverty and inequality are investing in the future," said Law, who directs the Morality, Altruism & Prosociality Lab, or MAPLab.
"That's likely because they can afford to. People in those countries express a greater capacity and interest in longer-term goals that could benefit society's future. Again, they have the resources to think beyond their basic needs." These findings suggest alleviating poverty and inequality today may also support humanity's long-term future.
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