Manhattan ? Health decisions ranging from whether to smoke or wear sunscreen are rooted in people’s perspective about the future.

That’s what a pair of Kansas State University researchers found in a study that appears in the January 2010 issue of the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

The study found that people who tend to think in the long term are more likely to make positive health decisions.

“If you are more willing to pick later, larger rewards rather than taking the immediate payoff, you are more future-minded than presentminded,” said James Daugherty, a doctoral student in psychology who led the study. “You’re more likely to exercise and less likely to smoke and drink.”

The researchers asked college students to answer surveys about whether they think in the short term or the long term. They used questions that included, “Would you prefer $35 today or $45 in 35 days?”

The subjects then took surveys that asked questions, such as how often they ate breakfast, used tobacco and exercised, as well as their concerns with health risks like high cholesterol and contracting AIDS.

Daugherty and fellow reachers Gary Brase, an associate professor of psychology, found that the subjects who gave future-minded answers in the initial surveys were more likely to report healthy behaviors in the latter survey. They said this could have consequences for how people deal with negative health behaviors.

“There is a lot of potential for helping people make better health decisions,” Brase said. “People who tend to have a very present-minded perspective will have an easier time following through with a change if they can see rewards sooner. So if somebody goes into a weight loss center, the clinicians could measure a client’s time perspective. Then the clinicians would know the more effective way of helping the client reach his or her weight loss goal.”

The researchers next plan to study whether people’s perspective about the future is related to environmentally responsible behaviors like recycling.