Abstract
Building on past theoretical and empirical work on legacy motives, temporal discounting and intergenerational action, we investigated whether legacy motives can be understood as composed of two related but distinct latent dimensions: “impact” motives (i.e., caring about the positive impact one has on future generations) and “reputation” motives (i.e., caring about whether one is remembered positively). Across five online studies (total N = 1745), we found consistent support for this two-factor model of legacy motives. Although impact and reputation legacy motives correlated strongly with each other, impact legacy motives related more strongly and more consistently to self-reports of environmental movement activism, personal conservation behaviors, and climate change concern. The relation between reputation legacy motives and these outcome measures is weaker in part because it is contingent on the perceived visibility of the pro-environmental behavior in question. We discuss how understanding the dual nature of legacy motives is crucial for the creation of more effective interventions to increase intergenerational concern.
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