Future-Orientation (as Trait and State) Promotes Reputation-Protective Choice in Moral Dilemmas

Abstract

By neglecting the lifelong importance of having a good reputation, humans can profit in the short run from immoral behavior. Thus, reputation-protection is an intertemporal choice. In three preregistered studies (N = 1,492 Americans), we tested the hypothesis that future-orientation would increase people’s willingness to protect their reputation from harm. In hypothetical scenarios, people had to choose whether they would pay an immediate cost to prevent a devastating rumor from spreading. Study 1 found a positive correlation between future-orientation and reputation-protection. Study 2 manipulated time perspective experimentally and found that future focus (vs. present focus) had a positive and causal effect on reputation-protection. Study 3 was a high-powered replication, showing that the effect of future focus on reputation-protective choice was robust and mediated by reputational concern. In line with common advice around the world of protecting one’s reputation from harm, one way people may achieve that goal is to think about the future before acting.