Design and Evaluation of Message Thinking based on Futurability Education

Abstract: Human decision-making is often shaped by “temporal myopia” and “present bias,” which lead individuals to undervalue the significance of their future selves and others, resulting in a tendency toward short-term choices. In today’s world, where life expectancy is increasing and career paths are becoming more diverse, it is increasingly important to counteract these tendencies by cultivating decision-making abilities based on long-term and multidimensional perspectives. To address this issue, Saijo proposed the concept of “Future Design,” which aims to build a society that incorporates the interests of future generations. At the core of this framework is the concept of “Futurability,” which refers to the idea that even when present benefits are sacrificed, decisions and actions that contribute to the well-being of future generations can enhance human happiness. Expanding on this concept, Kurashiki introduced “Futurability Education,” an educational intervention framework designed to activate individuals’ inherent potential for Futurability. The framework consists of three phases: (1) recognition of Futurability, (2) cognitive training, and (3) exploration of trade-offs, all aimed at strengthening decision-making capacity. In this study, we developed and tested a practical method of Futurability Education called “Message Thinking.” In this approach, participants take on various temporal and generational roles and write messages to their future selves from each role. The exercises were designed to promote perspective shifts and foster long-term decision-making skills, and their educational effects were empirically evaluated. The study focused on two roles: the “present parent” and the “future parent.” We examined psychological changes before and after the exercise, with particular attention to how participants acquired a future-oriented perspective. The intervention was conducted with 95 graduate students from the Graduate School of Engineering at The University of Osaka. Participants engaged in the Message Thinking exercise and completed pre- and post-surveys. The surveys included the Career Resilience Scale, the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale, and items assessing awareness and willingness related to prosocial helping behaviors. Results showed significant improvement in four subscales of the Career Resilience Scale: “ability to cope with problems and change,” “social skills,” “optimism about the future,” and “willingness to help others.” Improvements were also observed in two subscales of the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale: “goal selection” and “degree of independence in decision making.” Furthermore, four out of eight items related to prosocial awareness and willingness demonstrated significant gains, especially those addressing support for future others. All of these improvements were confirmed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. These findings suggest that Message Thinking enabled participants to reflect on their behavior and decision-making from perspectives that are rarely accessed in daily life, such as those of present and future parents. This experience appears to have supported psychological shifts in career-related thinking and increased their awareness and willingness to support others. In particular, the observed enhancement of future orientation and prosocial attitudes toward future others indicates that Message Thinking holds promise as an effective educational intervention for activating Futurability.

Keywords: Futurability Education, Message Thinking, Career Resilience, Career Decision Self-Efficacy, Prosocial Behavior

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1006945

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