The consideration of future consequences (CFC) is a personality trait defined as the extent to which individuals consider the potential future outcomes of their current behaviour and the extent to which they are influenced by the imagined outcomes.Strathman, A., Gleicher, F., Boninger, D.S. & Edwards, C. S. (1994) The consideration of future consequences: Weighing immediate and distant outcomes of behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 742-752. Individuals who score highly on a measure such as the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale typically focus on the future implications of their behaviour, whereas those low on CFC typically focus more on their immediate needs and concerns.Orbell, S., & Kyriakaki, M (2008). Temporal framing and persuasion to adopt preventive health behavior: Moderating effects of individual differences in consideration of future consequences on sunscreen use. Health Psychology, 27, 770-779. CFC has been linked with a wide range of theoretically-relevant outcomes.

Relation to behaviour

Health

CFC has been shown to have implications for health-related behaviours, as those performed to protect health typically involve delayed benefits and immediate costs.Chapman, G. B. (2005). Short-term cost for long-term benefit: Time preference and cancer control. Health Psychology, 24, 41-48. Individuals who ignore the future consequences of their behaviour will tend to focus more on short-term needs and the likelihood of these individuals performing a health-related behaviour depends on their evaluation of the inconvenience, loss of pleasure, or psychological costs of the immediate behaviour. Individuals who think ahead to the future consequences of their present behaviours are more inclined to act in ways that are protective of their future health and well-being.

Varying levels of CFC have been found to be related to smoking and alcohol consumption, where individuals with higher CFC scores report lower frequencies of each behaviour.Beenstock, J., Adams, J., White, M. (2011) The association between time perspective and alcohol consumption in university students: Cross-sectional study. European Journal of Public Health, 21, 438-443. High CFC individuals have also been shown to be more cautious about their sexual activity, have fewer sexual partners, are more likely to use alternate methods of reducing exposure to HIV (e.g. inquiring about partner's sexual history, delaying or abstaining from sex), and are more likely to seek out HIV-testing.Dorr, N., Krueckeburg, S., Strathman, A. & Wood, A. (1999). Psychosocial correlates of voluntary HIV antibody testing in college students. AIDS Education and Prevention, 11, 14-27. People high in CFC have also been found to have more regular sleep schedules.Peters, B.R., Joireman, J., & Ridgeway, R.L. (2005). Individual differences in the consideration of future consequences scale correlate with sleep habits, sleep quality, and GPA in university students. Psychological Reports, 96, 817-824. Conversely, low CFC has been shown to be associated with higher Body Mass Index.Adams, J., & Nettle, D. (2009). Time perspective, personality and smoking, body mass, and physical activity: An empirical study. British Journal of Health Psychology, 14, 83–105.Adams, J., & White, M. (2009). Time perspective in socioeconomic inequalities in smoking and body mass index. Health Psychology, 28, 83-90.

Considering the future implications of one's behavior is also important when making decisions regarding treatment options for health problems. For example, increasing evidence suggests that long-term estrogen therapy raises the risk of breast cancer, drugs used to reduce stomach acid have been linked to numerous future health problems, and long-term blood pressure medication use can cause a number of side effects. The immediate benefits of certain treatments may be positive in the short-term, but the long-term risks associated with these treatments can lead to health issues in the future.

Academic achievement Individuals high in CFC have been shown to have higher grade point averages in college.Petrocelli, J. (1997). The role of temporal focus on risk behaviors in college students. Unpublished master's thesis, Westminster College, New Wilmington PA.Joireman, J. (1999). Additional evidence for validity of the consideration of future consequences scale in an academic setting. Psychological Reports, 84, 1171–1172. CFC scale scores were found to be positively correlated with grade point average and also predicted success and goal attainment among students. Furthermore, one studyStrand, K. H. (2011). Behavioral effects of consideration of future consequences and time perspective on self-regulation and procrastination in mastery and performance-oriented college students. Information & Learning, 72, 1542. investigated students' self-reported procrastination and self-regulation in relation to CFC and achievement goals. Results indicated that CFC was positively associated with self-regulation and negatively associated with procrastination, showing that students higher in CFC were less likely to procrastinate.

Aggression Measures of aggression have been found to be associated with lower levels of CFC.Joireman, J., Anderson, J., Strathman, A. (2003). The aggression paradox: Understanding links among aggression, sensation seeking, and the consideration of future consequences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1287–1302. Joireman, Anderson, and Strathman demonstrated that relative to individuals scoring low on CFC, those scoring high were found to be less aggressive only when aggression was likely to carry future costs. CFC also plays a role in aggressive driving.Moore, M. & Dahlen, E. R. (2008). Forgiveness and consideration of future consequences in aggressive driving. Accident Analysis and Prevention 40, 1661–1666. Lower CFC scores have been shown to be associated with aggressive and risky driving behaviour, physically aggressive expression (e.g. shaking a fist at another driver), using one's vehicle to express anger, and are shown to be negatively related to constructive expression (thinking the situation through before responding). Individuals with higher CFC report engaging in fewer aggressive and risky driving behaviours and are more likely to express driving-related anger in an appropriate manner.

Fiscal responsibility Studies have examined whether CFC has implications in the way people handle their money, specifically financial behavior that maximizes long-term well being (fiscal responsibility).Joireman, J., Sprott, D. E., Spangenberg, E. R. (2005). Fiscal responsibility and the consideration of future consequences. Personality and Individual Differences, 39, 1159–1168. Participants in these studies were measured on their tendencies to shop impulsively and whether they were more likely to choose between a lower amount of money in the short-term over a larger amount of money in the future, a concept referred to as temporal discounting. Results showed that individuals with low levels of CFC had greater impulsive buying tendencies and were more likely to engage in temporal discounting. Additionally, another study among college students found that more compulsive buyers who focused on maximizing immediate consequences were at a much greater risk of building up significant amounts of credit card debt.Joireman, J., Kees, J., Sprott, D. (2010). Concern with immediate consequences magnifies the impact of compulsive buying tendencies on college students' credit card debt. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 44, 155-178.

Environmentalism CFC has been shown to be associated with pro-environmentalism. Research has found that pro-environmental intentions and behaviours are predicted by individual differences in CFC,Joireman, J. A., Van Lange, P. A. M., Van Vugt, M., Wood, A., Vander Leest, T., & Lambert, C. (2001). Structural solutions to social dilemmas: A field study on commuters' willingness to fund improvements in public transit. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 31, 504–526. for example, CFC has been shown to influence recycling behaviour.Lindsay, J. J., & Strathman, A. (1997). Predictors of recycling behavior: An application of a modified health belief model. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 27, 1799–1823. Furthermore, in a study with a sample of commuters, preferences for using public transportation as opposed to driving a car were influenced by CFC levels, specifically when individuals believed that excessive car usage could damage air quality.Joireman, J. A., Van Lange, P. A. M., & Van Vugt, M. (2004). Who cares about the environmental impact of cars? Those with an eye toward the future. Environment & Behavior, 35, 1-20.

Measurement

Consideration of future consequences is measured by the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale developed by Strathman and colleagues, and consists of 12 items. Respondents are asked to indicate to what extent each item characterizes them on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (extremely uncharacteristic) to 5 (extremely characteristic). Example items are as follows: "I often consider how things might be in the future and try to influence those things with my day to day behaviour," "I only act to satisfy immediate concerns, figuring the future will take care of itself," and "I think that sacrificing now is usually unnecessary since future outcomes can be dealt with at a later time." The scale has been translated into ten different languages: Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, and Turkish.

In relation to other similar constructs, the CFC scale has demonstrated good convergent validity. Measures of internal locus of control, delay of gratification, and the future oriented items on the Stanford Time Perspective Inventory,Zimbardo, P. G. (1990). The Stanford Time Perspective Inventory Stanford, CA: Stanford University. have all been found to be positively correlated with CFC.

The CFC scale has also shown good incremental validity. Strathman and colleagues measured the amount of variance predicted by CFC over and above the effects of other similar variables. Results showed that CFC predicted health behaviours, such as smoking and environmental behaviours, over and above the variables of conscientiousness, hope, optimism, and time perspective.

Age differences CFC is relatively stable on a one-year timeline, however it has been shown to be less stable over three years. Research has suggested that individual levels of CFC may decline with age.Orbell, S., Perugini, M., & Rakow, T. (2004) Individual differences in sensitivity to health communications: Consideration of future consequences. Health Psychology, 23, 388-396. Such findings can be examined by looking at differences in average CFC scores across various age groups. Mean CFC scores obtained in previous studies have ranged from 4.84 among undergraduates, 3.87 among commuters with an average age of 38 years,Joireman, J. A., Lasane, T. P., Bennett, J., Richards, D., & Solaimani, S. (2001). Integrating social value orientation and the consideration of future consequences within the extended norm activation model of proenvironmental behavior. British Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 133–155. and 3.20 among a sample of 50- to 69-year-olds.

Health communication

Temporal framing