Temporal dilemmas and consumer behavior: the role of concern with future and immediate consequences

Benjamin Phifer and Jeff Joireman

Chapter 22 in Handbook of Social Psychology and Consumer Behavior, 2026, pp 317-332 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) construct and scale were proposed by Strathman and colleagues (1994) to explain the extent to which consumers focus on the immediate or future outcomes of their decisions. This chapter provides a review of the CFC construct and how it has been used to help understand consumer behavior across a variety of domains. We first highlight how consumers perceive a range of decisions that pit their future well-being against their immediate well-being (i.e., temporal dilemmas). We then describe the CFC construct, and how measurement of CFC has developed over 30 years. Next, we review how CFC influences consumer decisions about health, finances, and environmentally sustainable actions. Finally, we discuss how consumers with different levels of CFC are most effectively persuaded by tailored messages appealing to the (future vs. immediate) temporal consequences they consider most important.

Keywords: Consideration of Future Consequences; Temporal dilemmas; Temporal trap; Temporal fence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035327591
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