Negotiating with the future: Incorporating imaginary future generations into negotiations

Yoshio Kamijo, Asuka Komiya, Nobuhiro Mifune and Tatsuyoshi Saijo ()
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Asuka Komiya: Hiroshima University
Nobuhiro Mifune: School of Economics and Management, Kochi University of Technology

No SDES-2016-7, Working Papers from Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management

Abstract: People to be born in the future have no direct influence on current affairs. Given the disconnect between people who are currently living and those that will inherit the planet left for them, individuals who are currently alive tend to be more oriented toward the present, posing a fundamental problem related to sustainability. In this study, we propose a new framework for reconciling the disconnect between the present and the future whereby some individuals in the current generation serve as an imaginary future generation that negotiates with individuals in the real-world present. Through a laboratory-controlled intergenerational sustainability dilemma game (ISDG), we show how the presence of negotiators for a future generation increases the benefits of future generations. More specifically, we found that when faced with members of an imaginary future generation, 60% of participants selected an option that promoted sustainability. In contrast, when the imaginary future generation was not salient, only 28% of participants chose the sustainable option.

Keywords: Intergenerational Sustainability Dilemma Game; Imaginary Future Generation; Negotiation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2016-06, Revised 2016-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in SDE Series, June 2016, pages 1-35

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http://www.souken.kochi-tech.ac.jp/seido/wp/SDES-2016-7.pdf First version, 2016 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Negotiating with the future: Incorporating imaginary future generations into negotiations (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kch:wpaper:sdes-2016-7

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