Seeing into the Future: Future Time Orientation as a Moderator of Temporal Distance Effects on Educators' Decisions

Abstract

Research suggests that the temporal distance from decision outcomes leads to divergent decisions for the near and the distal future. As such, high‐level idealistic concerns and values dominate decisions for the distant future, whereas low‐level pragmatic concerns play a greater role in decisions for the near future. We examined how individual differences in future time orientation are related to decisions vis‐à‐vis the near versus the distal future. The results of three studies, with participants with varying levels of expertise—students (Studies 2 and 3), teachers (Study 1), and school principals (Study 2)—show that principals tend to be overall more idealistic in their choices. Yet discrepancies between decisions for the near versus the distal future exist among all three levels of expertise. However, this dominance of idealistic over pragmatic concerns for more distant future decisions effect was smaller the higher the future time orientation was (whether measured or manipulated). Implications for educational and managerial decision making and training are discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…In acknowledging the influencing presence of our constants discussed above, pragmatism has a temporal orientation as people think about how they will move forward in their changed worlds; this is central to a concept that deals with the narrative between past and future lives. Differences in time orientation may shape decision outcomes for the near and the distal future, where according to Kogut et al (2017) high-level idealistic concerns and values often dominate decisions for the distant future, whereas low-level pragmatic concerns play a greater role in decisions for the near future. Building on the differences in orientation towards near and distal futures, we propose that our participants adopt a pragmatic temporality in the ways they reflect on the past and present, which, in turn, shape their perspective of future outcomes.…”