Future events are inherently uncertain in terms of possible delays and outcomes. The perception and estimation of such uncertainty might not only affect the construal of future events but also play a critical role in intertemporal preference. This article presents one interview and two vignette studies that examined how people perceive and estimate the uncertainty in the delays and outcomes of future events, as well as their interrelationships in the gain and loss domains. It was found that the perceived distributions of future delays tended to be positively skewed for both gains and losses, whereas the perceived distributions of future outcomes tended to follow asymmetric distributions as well, but different scenarios and measuring methods might lead to different measured directions of perceived skewness. Furthermore, for both gains and losses, anticipated (i.e., the estimated most likely) delays and outcomes are positively associated with the range (i.e., the level of perceived uncertainty) of the relevant estimates, respectively. Finally, the estimation of outcomes is often contingent on estimated delays in terms of possible outcomes, their range, and the shape of the relevant distribution. Overall, this research presents a richer and more comprehensive picture of perceived uncertainty in the delays and outcomes of future events. More broadly, the current findings have significant theoretical and empirical implications for understanding and improving human judgment, estimation, and intertemporal decisions in general. Future research on intertemporal preference should incorporate this long-overlooked picture to generate more realistic stimuli for a better understanding of the cognitive and affective mechanisms underlying real-life intertemporal decisions.
How individuals explain poverty has long been linked to different emotional responses. Causal attributions that refer to characteristics such as laziness or lack of effort on the part of disadvantaged individuals tend to elicit negative emotions towards them, whereas those that point to factors beyond the individual's control are associated with positive affect. However, far less is known about how individuals explain economic inequality, which, unlike poverty, inherently captures the system of relationships between advantaged and disadvantaged groups. To address this gap, this study pursues two related aims. First, it investigates attributions of income and wealth inequality and their emotional correlates. Second, it examines whether distinct emotional responses emerge when economic differences are represented as income or wealth inequality, rich or poor people, and taxpayers or social beneficiaries. Drawing on original representative online survey data collected in Great Britain ( N = 3,002), France ( N = 3,012), and Sweden ( N = 3,000), the authors show that the government is identified as the principal cause of both income and wealth inequality across all three countries. At the same time, affluent individuals are more often held responsible for wealth inequality, whereas private companies are more frequently blamed for income inequality. Moreover, different causal attributions are associated with distinct emotional responses: attributing economic inequality to disadvantaged individuals is linked to lower levels of sadness, moral outrage, anger, and frustration. Finally, emotional responses to economic differences prove to be multi-targeted and multivalent, revealing distinctions between income and wealth inequality, as well as sharp contrasts with emotional responses towards economically advantaged and disadvantaged groups. Together, these findings provide a more nuanced understanding of how people explain and emotionally respond to different manifestations of economic inequality.
Health behavior procrastination (e.g., exercise procrastination and bedtime procrastination), which has been linked to self-control failure, has attracted increasing attention in health psychology. Given evidence that meaning in life is positively associated with self-control, the present study aimed to examine the associations between meaning in life and health behavior procrastination via self-control. Three waves of data, with one-month intervals between assessments, were collected from 713 undergraduate students from a medical department in China. The Three-dimensional Meaning in Life Scale, Brief Self-Control Scale, Exercise Procrastination Scale, and Bedtime Procrastination Scale were used to assess meaning in life, self-control, and health behavior procrastination. Cross-lagged analyses indicated that Time 1 meaning in life positively predicted Time 2 self-control, which, in turn, negatively predicted exercise procrastination and bedtime procrastination at Time 3. A small indirect longitudinal association between Time 1 meaning in life and Time 3 health behavior procrastination through Time 2 self-control was also observed. The present study provides support for the longitudinal association between meaning in life and health behavior procrastination, although the evidence was more limited support for exercise procrastination. It also provides statistical evidence for a small indirect longitudinal association through self-control. These findings contribute to understanding the longitudinal associations between meaning in life and health behavior procrastination.
Perceived economic inequality has wide-ranging effects on individuals’ sociopsychological consequences, yet relatively little is known about how it shapes individuals’ self-perceptions in the workplace. The present study ( N = 1018) addresses this gap by examining whether perceived economic inequality, as a macro-level environmental factor, fosters working self-objectification and by identifying financially contingent self-worth (FCSW) as a key psychological mechanism. In addition, we investigate whether these processes contribute to the rationalization of exploitative workplace practices. Across four studies, we provide converging evidence for our hypotheses. Study 1 found that perceptions of economic inequality at the national level and in daily life were positively associated with working self-objectification. Studies 2–4 established the causal relationship between perceived economic inequality and working self-objectification through experimental designs employing fictitious society paradigms. These studies (Studies 2–4) consistently show that FCSW mediates the relationship between perceived economic inequality and working self-objectification, suggesting that individuals who base their self-worth on financial success are more likely to perceive themselves as tools in the workplace. Importantly, Study 3 demonstrated that the intervention aimed at reducing FCSW mitigated the effect of subjective economic inequality on working self-objectification. Finally, Study 4 uncovered a critical downstream consequence: increased FCSW and working self-objectification driven by perceived economic inequality led individuals to rationalize exploitative workplace practices, such as unpaid overtime. Together, these findings extend the literature on subjective economic inequality by demonstrating its influence on individuals’ self-perception in the workplace. By linking macro-level inequality to micro-level psychological processes, this research highlights how structural conditions may contribute to the internalization and perpetuation of exploitative organizational norms.
