Consideration of Future Consequences as a Predictor of Environmentally Responsible Behavior: Evidence From a General Population Study

The present study analyzes the relationship between Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) and environmentally friendly behavior in a large general population survey (n = 1,945). CFC captures the extent to which a person is driven by short-term rewards or orients himself or herself toward long-term goals. As there is considerable debate about whether the scale captures concern with future consequences only, or with both future and immediate consequences, preliminary factor analyses were conducted. These support differentiation into two subscales: one reflecting concern for immediate benefits (CFC-Immediate) and one conveying a concern for future outcomes (CFC-Future). The results with regard to behavior, however, do not differ systematically between CFC-Immediate and CFC-Future. Overall, the results reveal that CFC is a significant predictor of pro-environmental behavior and that this relationship was (partially) mediated by environmental concern.