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We care about our children and the world they'll inherit. And we care about their children. But when it comes to the generations we won't be around to know, the ties tend to be less strong—at least when it comes to dealing with how our current behavior might impact future generations.
我们关爱孩子，关心这个他们将要继承的世界。我们也关爱他们的下一代。但是提到未知的后代时，这种祖辈关系就不那么强烈了——至少在提到我们现在的行为会如何影响后代时是这样。
But researchers have found that reminders of our own mortality may motivate us to make inter-generational trade-offs that benefit future communities.
但是研究人员发现，只要提醒人类自身生命有限，就会激发我们权衡代际关系，做出对后代有益的决定。
Volunteers were asked to read an article about a fatal airline accident. Then they had to play the role of the head of a company that discovered a new source of cheap, efficient energy. They had to decide how much of that energy should be used by the company today versus saving it for use by others in the future. Turns out, those who were primed to think of mortality were much more likely to save the resource for future use by others. The study is in the journal Psychological Science.
在一项实验里，要求志愿者读一篇关于致命的航天事故的文章。然后让他们扮演一家公司的首脑人物，这家公司发现了一种价格低廉，高效的的新能源。他们必须决定现代的公司利用多少能源，节省多少能源留给未来的人们。结果证明，事先想过死亡问题的志愿者更倾向于节省能源，为未来做准备。该研究刊登在《心理科学》杂志上。
The researchers say that by making a difference for future generations we gain a sense of purpose that combats the feeling of finality when we face our inevitable mortality.
研究者说道，通过影响后代，我们有了目标感，这种感觉与我们面临不可避免的死亡时的终结感相对抗。
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