The Role of Future Orientation in Environmental Behavior: Analyzing the Relationship on the Individual and Cultural Levels

Abstract

The concept of sustainability includes a personal and societal imperative to assume responsibility for the future outcomes of present actions, to look forward, or in other words, to have a future orientation. Future orientation is both a personality trait and a cultural characteristic that strongly influences behavioral decisions on the personal and societal levels, respectively. This research addresses the relationship between future orientation and pro-environmental behavior on both levels. In a representative sample of the population (n = 1216), we found that individuals with developed future orientation demonstrated more pro-environmental tendencies. On the cross-cultural level we also found that in countries that conduct future-oriented practices in general the environment benefits, because the citizens tend to behave more pro-environmentally. The parallel between factors that affect future orientation and environmental behavior and the implications for promoting pro-environmental practices in the social and personal levels are discussed.