Intergenerational sustainability is enhanced by taking the perspective of future generations

TLDR

The intergenerational sustainability dilemma concerns whether individuals sacrifice themselves for future sustainability. The study examines individual behavior by instituting a one‑person ISD game with a generational queue. The authors model the ISD with a one‑person game where each individual selects sustainable or unsustainable options based on payoffs and irreversible costs, and introduce a Future Ahead and Back (FAB) mechanism that asks participants to first adopt the next generation’s perspective before deciding. Results indicate that without FAB individuals tend to repeat unsustainable choices, but the FAB mechanism prevents such choices in endangered scenarios, suggesting that adopting future‑generation perspectives can avert intergenerational unsustainability.

Abstract

The intergenerational sustainability dilemma (ISD) is a situation of whether or not a person sacrifices herself for future sustainability. To examine the individual behaviors, one-person ISD game (ISDG) is instituted with strategy method where a queue of individuals is organized as a generational sequence. In ISDG, each individual chooses unsustainable (or sustainable) option with her payoff of [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]) and an irreversible cost of [Formula: see text] (zero cost) to future generations in [Formula: see text] situations. Future ahead and back (FAB) mechanism is suggested as resolution for ISD by taking the perspective of future generation whereby each individual is first asked to take the next generation's standpoint and request what she wants the current generation to choose, and, second, to make the actual decision from the original position. Results show that individuals choose unsustainable option as previous generations do so or [Formula: see text] is low (i.e., sustainability is endangered). However, FAB prevents individuals from choosing unsustainable option in such endangered situations. Overall, the results suggest that some new institutions, such as FAB mechanisms, which induce people to take the perspective of future generations, may be necessary to avoid intergenerational unsustainability, especially when intergenerational sustainability is highly endangered.