Abstract
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), consisting of 17 specific goals such as ending poverty, reducing inequality, and combating climate change, were proposed by the UN member states in 2014 for the ongoing UN agenda until 2030. These goals articulate the growing need for the international community to build a sustainable future. To progress and build a truly sustainable future requires not only the immediate support of individuals for the current SDGs, but also their personal long-term commitment to the needs of future generations (i.e., intergenerational altruism). Reminders of death can influence attitudes, motivation, and behavior in various aspects of our lives. In the current research, we thus explored whether reminding individuals of their own death will influence their intergenerational altruism and perceived importance of the SDGs. Using a three-condition (mortality salience vs. dentist visit vs. neutral) randomized experiment, we found that mortality salience led participants to place a higher priority on the needs of future generations only when compared to the neutral condition. Further, we conducted a factor analysis that generated two SDGs factors (socially related SDGs and ecologically related SDGs). We found that mortality salience reduced participants’ perceived importance of the socially related SDGs when compared to both the dentist visit and the neutral conditions, and mortality salience decreased participants’ perceived importance of the ecologically related SDGs only when compared to the neutral condition.
Highlights
Sustainable development was first proposed by the Brundtland (1987, p. 43) report in as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” It aims to balance the global linkages between issues of environmental degradation, socioeconomic problems associated with inequality and poverty, and the needs of future generations (Giddings et al, 2002)
We found that mortality salience induced participants to care more about the needs of future generations only when compared to the neutral condition
We found mortality salience reduced participants’ perceived importance of the socially related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) when compared to both the dentist visit and the neutral conditions, and mortality salience decreased participants’ perceived importance of the ecologically related SDGs only when compared to the neutral condition
Summary
Sustainable development was first proposed by the Brundtland (1987, p. 43) report in as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” It aims to balance the global linkages between issues of environmental degradation, socioeconomic problems associated with inequality and poverty, and the needs of future generations (Giddings et al, 2002). Priming death awareness increases people’s prejudice toward others who hold different cultural worldviews (Greenberg et al, 1990), and motivates aggression toward outgroup members (McGregor et al, 1998) Another way individuals can defend against existential anxiety is by denying that humans are a part of nature. Intergenerational altruism could serve as another way to repress death-related anxiety The reason behind this rationale is that intergenerational altruism extends individuals’ existence into the future and helps them to achieve the goal of symbolic immortality by facilitating a psychological connection between the self and others in the future and establishing a legacy to create a lasting impact on others (Wade-Benzoni and Tost, 2009). The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Review Committee of Nankai University
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