Concern for Future Generations Predicts Present-Day Extraordinary Altruism: A Case Study of Organ Donorship

Are concern for future generations and present-day altruism at odds? Across three studies, wechallenge the common assumption of a tradeoff between long-term moral concern and immediateprosocial action. Drawing on theories of moral expansiveness, we find that individuals who caremore about the far future—those high in impartial intergenerational beneficence—are also morelikely to engage in or express interest in organ donation, a costly and urgent form of present-dayaltruism. In a large-scale survey (Study 1), a preregistered experiment (Study 2), and acomparison of living organ donors with matched controls (Study 3), future-oriented concernpredicted comfort discussing donation, intent to register, and actual donor status. These findingsdeepen psychological understandings of prosocial concern across time and contributepreliminary evidence for a novel, theoretically-grounded pathway for increasing donorregistration. Rather than competing, future and present prosociality tend to reinforce one another,offering new insights for solving pressing global health crises and far-future societal challengesalike.