Is Life Getting Better and Better or Worse and Worse for Oneself and Others? Investigating the Link Between Beliefs About Life Unfolding Over Time and Motivation for a Positive Future

Abstract

We report two preregistered studies examining how individuals view life to be unfolding over time for themselves, people in their community, country, and all of humanity. We evaluated the link between such beliefs and “well-doing,” that is, the motivation to engage in actions geared toward an improved future. In Study 1 (N = 963; M age = 40.83 years; 48.2% female), individuals reported their beliefs about how life is unfolding over time for people in one of four target conditions: self, community, country, or all of humanity. In Study 2 (N = 947; M age = 39.52; 51.4% female), individuals were randomly assigned to one of three narrative direction conditions (better, stable, worse) for one of the four target conditions. In Study 1, participants viewed life as getting better over time for the self, on average, but getting worse for the other targets. In both studies, perceiving life as improving (vs. worsening) was associated with stronger well-doing intentions, particularly in the self condition in Study 1 and with respect to participants' general motivation in Study 2 regardless of target condition. Thus, viewing life as getting better and better (vs. worse and worse) over time may play an important role in motivating individuals to strive toward making life better, not only for oneself but also for people in one's community, country, and all of humanity.