Short horizons and tempting situations: Lack of continuity to our future selves leads to unethical decision making and behavior

► We examine continuity to the future self and unethical decision making. ► We examine judgments, decisions, and actual behavior. ► Lack of continuity is linked to cheating, lying, and making false promises. People who feel continuity with their future selves are more likely to behave in ethically r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Organizational behavior and human decision processes 2012-03, Vol.117 (2), p.298-310
Main Authors: Hershfield, Hal E., Cohen, Taya R., Thompson, Leigh
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Business ethics
Causality
Cognition. Intelligence
Deceit
Decision making
Decision making. Choice
Ethical decision making
Ethics
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Future self-continuity
Inappropriateness
Individual differences
Intertemporal choice
Judgement
Judgments
Negotiation
Organizational behavior
Personality traits
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Self-concept
Selfcontrol
Studies
Unethical behavior
Unethical decision making
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Summary:► We examine continuity to the future self and unethical decision making. ► We examine judgments, decisions, and actual behavior. ► Lack of continuity is linked to cheating, lying, and making false promises. People who feel continuity with their future selves are more likely to behave in ethically responsible ways as compared to people who lack continuity with their future selves. We find that individual differences in perceived similarity to one’s future self predicts tolerance of unethical business decisions (Studies 1a and 1b), and that the consideration of future consequences mediates the extent to which people regard inappropriate negotiation strategies as unethical (Study 2). We reveal that low future self-continuity predicts unethical behavior in the form of lies, false promises, and cheating (Studies 3 and 4), and that these relationships hold when controlling for general personality dimensions and trait levels of self-control (Study 4). Finally, we establish a causal relationship between future self-continuity and ethical judgments by showing that when people are prompted to focus on their future self (as opposed to the future), they express more disapproval of unethical behavior (Study 5).
ISSN:0749-5978
1095-9920
DOI:10.1016/j.obhdp.2011.11.002