Numbing Toward Future Generations: Why We Struggle to Care, and How We Can Change
By María Morena Vicente and Emiliano Rodríguez Nuesch
In a world where pressing issues like climate change, technological risks, and health crises demand long-term vision, one troubling barrier emerges: the widespread numbing we experience when it comes to future generations.
Research reveals when suffering is in the future, empathy fades. People feel less concern for those who aren’t suffering now. This "intertemporal empathy decline" limits motivation to support future-focused causes and policies.
In this article, we’ll delve into two major reasons for this disconnection: present discounting—our bias for immediate rewards over distant consequences—and the empathy gap—the challenge we face in connecting emotionally with people we’ll never meet.
Understanding and addressing these psychological barriers can help foster compassion for those yet to come.
Choosing Now Over the Future
Present discounting is our natural tendency to favor immediate rewards over distant benefits, leading us to neglect long-term outcomes. A great example of this bias is seen in the Marshmallow Test, where children are given the choice to eat one marshmallow now or wait and get two later.
The struggle to wait reflects how we all often favor quick rewards, even if it means missing out on bigger benefits later.
This short-term focus impacts how much we’re willing to invest or donate in future-focused causes, like climate action, showing how we often discount future generations’ needs.
Feeling compassion for someone you don’t know
The empathy gap describes our difficulty empathizing with others who are different from us—whether in distance, culture, or time.
When it comes to future generations, this gap is compounded by the fact that they remain unknown and abstract, making it hard to feel connected to them.
This is how creative storytelling from movies, series and music lyrics can help bridge this empathy gap by making future consequences feel real today.
Saving Humanity’s Future in The Time Machine (1960)
In this classic film, a scientist named George builds a time machine and travels far into the future. When he arrives, he meets the Eloi, a gentle but passive group of people who live under constant threat from the Morlocks, a more aggressive underground species.
George is shocked by how humanity has changed, weakened over time and divided into these two groups. He feels a deep sense of responsibility for them, even though they are so far removed from his own time.
Although this scientist doesn’t fully grasp how people in the future think or act—and at times, they even infuriate him—he repeatedly risks his life to save them, standing up for them as if they were his own.
Through George’s actions, the story asks us to consider our own role in caring for future generations—even if they may seem distant or different from us.
Finding Hope in Children of Men (2006)
This 2006 production explores a bleak future where humanity faces extinction due to global infertility. But what makes it a powerful example of compassion for unknown future generations?
We see a moment of compassion for the future when Theo, a former activist, risks his life to protect Kee, a refugee woman who is pregnant with humanity’s first child in years. In this powerful scene, as the baby cries, the brutal fighting stops, and soldiers and refugees alike are momentarily united in awe and hope for a future they may never see.
An Empathy Trip Through Time and Space in Interstellar (2014)
This movie tells the story of Cooper, a former NASA pilot, who joins a risky space mission to find a new habitable planet as Earth becomes increasingly unlivable.
His journey is driven by love for his children and future generations, even though he may never see them again. In a key scene, Cooper watches years of messages from his children, who have aged as he’s been gone in space, reminding him of all he’s sacrificed for their future.
This scene emphasizes empathy and hope for people who will live long after us, capturing the emotional weight of working toward a future beyond our own.
A musical letter to future generations
Prince Ea’s "Dear Future Generations: Sorry" evokes empathy by speaking directly to future generations, encouraging listeners to imagine the effects of today’s environmental damage on those who aren’t yet here to advocate for themselves.
Through music and lyrics, he makes the climate crisis feel personal, shifting it from a distant, abstract issue to a matter of individual responsibility. This approach highlights the urgency to protect nature while also challenges viewers to consider their impact on people ‘from the future’, making empathy a bridge across time.
These examples show that compassion isn’t limited to our immediate surroundings or time. By viewing ourselves as caretakers of future generations, we can break through the mental barriers that make it hard to care about those who come after us—and start making decisions today that will ensure they have a world they can live in and build on.