Impartial Intergenerational Beneficence: The Psychology of Feeling (Equal) Intergenerational Concern for All Future Generations.

This article focuses on the development and validation of a psychological measure called the Impartial Intergenerational Beneficence Inventory (IIBI), designed to assess impartial intergenerational beneficence (IIB)—defined as equal concern for the welfare of all future generations regardless of temporal distance. Across eight studies involving 6,866 participants, the research found that about 20% of individuals exhibit IIB, showing stable, high concern for both near- and distant-future generations. The IIBI demonstrated strong psychometric properties and predicted attitudes, behaviors, and intentions aligned with longtermism, a utilitarian ethical philosophy emphasizing moral obligations to future people. Individuals endorsing IIB also showed greater prosociality, future self-continuity, and moral expansiveness toward distant others, and were more willing to engage in effortful actions benefiting future-oriented causes. The findings highlight psychological barriers such as temporal discounting and parochial biases but suggest that measuring and understanding IIB can inform interventions and policies aimed at promoting long-term collective welfare.