Experimental Evidence for the Influence of Occupational Future Time Perspective on Social Preferences During Lunch Breaks

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Socioemotional selectivity theory predicts shifts in social motives from resource acquisition to emotional well-being when endings are salient. In the work context, the theory has instigated much research on understanding age-related shifts in motivation, yet this research has exclusively relied on correlational paradigms. To provide experimental evidence for key tenets of the theory, we manipulated employees’ occupational future time perspective in two scenario-experiments (N1 = 150, N2 = 240) to understand why some employees prefer emotionally close social partners for a joint lunch break, while others prefer instrumental ones. We found that emotionally close companions were generally preferred for a joint lunch. At the same time, employees with a long-term perspective (those imagining a permanent employment contract or being far from retirement) preferred instrumental social partners relatively more often than employees with a limited time perspective (those imagining having resigned or being close to retirement). Having limited future goals (i.e., imagining low career ambitions) further led to preferring fewer instrumental and even more emotionally close companions. Overall, this research shows that the main tenets of socioemotional selectivity theory are directly applicable to the work context and, further, that work-related social contacts seem to change not only after retirement, but also before when this life event is approaching. In terms of practical implications, our findings suggest to consider that employees with different time horizons and career ambitions might have different social motivations at work.