In fairness to future generations: The role of egocentrism, uncertainty, power, and stewardship in judgments of intergenerational allocations

Noblesse oblige emerges (with time): Power enhances intergenerational beneficence

“…For example, Handgraaf and colleagues (Handgraaf, Van Dijk, Vermunt, Wilke, & De Dreu, 2008) found that power increases selfishness in allocation decisions but only up to the point at which other recipients are completely powerless, at which point a desire to help others minimizes self-interested behavior. Intergenerational decisions often involve extreme power imbalances, and consistent with this notion, Wade-Benzoni et al (2008) found that the experience of power can induce feelings of stewardship, raising the level of generosity to future others that is viewed as fair and just. However, in the Wade-Benzoni et al (2008) experiment that manipulated power, participants were asked to focus on fairness as a determinant of their allocation.…”

“…Given that previous research has demonstrated that decision makers tend to discount across both of these dimensions, one would expect that the barriers to promoting intergenerational beneficence (i.e., generosity to future others) are considerable (see Wade-Benzoni & Tost, 2009, for an in-depth discussion of the barriers to intergenerational beneficence). However, previous research has uncovered a number of surprising variables that enhance intergenerational beneficence, such as outcome uncertainty (Wade-Benzoni, Hernandez, Medvec, & Messick, 2008) and mortality salience (Wade-Benzoni, Tost, Hernandez, & Larrick, 2012). In this paper, we explore how the experience of power is likely to affect intergenerational decision-making.…”

The moderating role of individual differences in responses to benefit and temporal framing of messages promoting residential energy saving

“…have been debates over whether the intergenerational nature of environmental issues would hinder (e.g., Wade-Benzoni, Hernandez, Medvec, & Messick, 2008) or promote (e.g., Frumkin, Fried, & Moody, 2012; cooperative behaviors.…”

When Are Transport Pricing Policies Fair and Acceptable?

“…Clayton (2000) argues that environmental justice is not limited to current generations, but that future generations should be taken into account as well, which implies that intergenerational comparisons should be made (see also, WadeBenzoni, 2002;Wade-Benzoni, Hernandez, Medvec, & Messick, 2008). Hence, environmental justice reflects the extent to which future generations are protected, by preserving natural resources.…”