In three studies, we examined the influence of restricted and expansive temporal horizons on the sunk‐cost fallacy. The sunk‐cost fallacy occurs when prior investments instead of future returns influence decisions about future investments. When making decisions about future investments, rational decision makers base decisions on future consequences, not already‐invested costs that are “sunk” and cannot be recovered. In Study 1, we restricted young adult college students' temporal horizons by instructing them to imagine that they did not have much longer to live; this manipulation decreased the sunk‐cost fallacy. In Study 2, we replicated Study 1 and also found that the consequences of manipulating temporal horizons were most pronounced for prior investments of time and that prior investments of time and money had different implications for the sunk‐cost fallacy, depending on the social or nonsocial decision domain. In Study 3, we manipulated temporal horizons by instructing students to imagine their time as a college student was coming to an end. Results were mostly similar to Study 2 but also suggested that focusing on one's mortality may have unique consequences. Implications of the three studies for understanding age differences in sunk‐cost decisions, interventions to improve sunk‐cost decisions, and the situations in which interventions might be most needed are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

According to socioemotional selectivity theory, older adults' emotional well-being stems from having limited future time perspective that motivates them to maximize well-being in the “here and now.” Presumably, then, older adults' time horizons are associated with emotional competencies that boost positive affect and dampen negative affect, but little research has addressed this. Using a US national adult life-span sample (N= 3,933, 18-93 yrs), we found that a two-factor model of future time perspective (focus on future opportunities; focus on limited time) fit the data better than a one-factor model. Through middle age, people perceived the life-span hourglass as half full—they focused more on future opportunities than limited time. Around age 60, the balance changed to increasingly perceiving the life-span hourglass as half empty—they focused less on future opportunities and more on limited time. This pattern held even after accounting for perceived health, self-reported decision-making ability, and retirement status. At all ages, women's time horizons focused more on future opportunities compared to men's, and men's focused more on limited time. Focusing on future opportunities was associated with reporting less preoccupation with negative events, whereas focusing on limited time was associated with reporting more preoccupation. Older adults reported less preoccupation with negative events and this association was stronger after controlling for their perceptions of limited time and fewer future opportunities, suggesting that other pathways may explain older adults' reports of their ability to disengage from negative events. Insights gained and questions raised by measuring future time perspective as two dimensions are discussed.

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We conceptualized gender as a constellation of behaviors that a person both “has” and “does” to examine college students’ endorsement of feminist and modern sexist attitudes. Men and women “have” internal, personal aspects of gender such as gender identification and stereotypically gendered traits, and they “do” their gender by engaging in stereotypically gendered activities and associating with peers. Men (n = 237) and women (n = 463) completed established self-report measures of gender identification, gender-typed personality traits, engagement in gender-typed activities, same-sex peer affiliation, feminism, and modern sexism. Structural equation modeling showed that correlates of feminist and modern sexist attitudes were different for men and women. For men, less endorsement of feminist attitudes was related to greater engagement in masculine activities, whereas engaging in feminine activities and endorsing feminine traits were related to more endorsement of feminist attitudes. Men who identified more with other men also reported attitudes that were less feminist and more modern sexist. For women, greater endorsement of masculine traits was associated with greater feminist attitudes, but engaging in masculine activities was related to less feminist attitudes. For women, none of the variables was related to sexist attitudes. Implications of these findings for understanding the development of feminist and sexist attitudes in U.S. college students are discussed.

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