Beliefs about life unfolding over time predict and impact intentions to make the world a better place

Abstract

Many individuals view their lives as getting better over time. Such beliefs motivate individuals to work toward an improved personal future life. However, societal-level issues suggest that individuals may view life as getting worse for people in their communities, country, and all of humanity. Further, it is unclear whether these societal-level beliefs are linked with individuals’ willingness to engage in actions geared towards improving the lives of others (i.e., well-doing). To address these issues, I conducted two pre-registered studies. In Study 1 (N = 963 online participants; M age = 40.83 years; 48.2% female), individuals reported their beliefs about how life is unfolding over time for people in one of four conditions: self, community, country, or all of humanity. In Study 2 (N = 947 online participants; M age = 39.52; 51.4% female), an experimental design evaluated the impact of an individual’s beliefs about how life is unfolding over time using a narrative direction manipulation (three levels: better, stable, worse) for each target (four levels: self, community, country, humanity). In both studies, participants rated the overall perceived quality of life in the past, at present, and in the anticipated future for their assigned target condition and their intentions to participate in well-doing activities. Identification was tested as a moderator. In Study 1, participants viewed life as getting better over time for the self, but not for the other targets. Further, those who reported believing that life was getting better (vs. worse) over time also reported stronger well-doing intentions. Such links were observed collapsing across conditions, and in the self and country conditions. In Study 2, participants in the better (vs. worse) narrative direction condition reported stronger general motivation but not stronger specific well-doing intentions. The impact of narrative direction was stronger in the self condition than for the other target conditions. In both studies, identification did not reliably moderate the relationship between beliefs about life unfolding over time and well-doing intentions. Thus, the present studies suggest that beliefs about life getting better (vs. worse) over time are associated with and impact individuals’ well-doing intentions regardless of one’s level of identification.