Considering Future Consequences

This chapter reports research on a theoretically relevant personality variable known as the consideration of future consequences (CFC). It also provides a model of the antecedents and consequences of CFC. The model integrates work on CFC with past theory and research in the areas of broader personality dimensions, temporal construal, intertemporal choice, delay of gratification, and self-control, in an effort to outline several cognitive and affective mechanisms that may account for and explain the operation of individual differences in CFC. In addition, it reviews studies that support the validity of the CFC construct around the following behavioral domains: health behavior, risk taking and academic achievement, aggression, prosocial organizational behavior, and proenvironmental attitudes and behavior. These studies emphasize the validity of the CFC construct for problems at the individual, dyadic, group, and societal levels of analysis.