To Know and to Care: How Awareness and Valuation of the Future Jointly Shape Consumer Spending

2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 1469-1485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Bartels ◽  
Oleg Urminsky
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Interventions ◽  
Opportunity Costs ◽  
Consumer Spending ◽  
Time Discounting ◽  
Discount Factors ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Future Outcomes

Abstract Reducing spending in the present requires the combination of being both motivated to provide for one’s future self (valuing the future) and actively considering long-term implications of one’s choices (awareness of the future). Feeling more connected to the future self—thinking that the important psychological properties that define your current self are preserved in the person you will be in the future—helps motivate consumers to make far-sighted choices by changing their valuation of future outcomes (e.g., discount factors). However, this change only reduces spending when opportunity costs are considered. Correspondingly, cues that highlight opportunity costs reduce spending primarily when people discount the future less or are more connected to their future selves. Implications for the efficacy of behavioral interventions and for research on time discounting are discussed.

A Discriminative Ontology for Future Selves

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 372-381
Author(s):  
Juraj Odorčák ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Second Order ◽  
Practical Advantage ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Self ◽  
The Right ◽  
Practical Feasibility

The article presents a critique of the commonly held assumption about the practical advantage of endurantism over perdurantism regarding the problem of future-directed self-concern of a person. The future-directed self-concern of a person crucially depends on the possibility of the right differentiation of diverging futures of distinct persons, therefore any theory of persistence that does not entail a special nonbranching relation of a person to only their future self seems to be counterintuitive or unrealistic for practical purposes of personal persistence. I argue that this pragmatic rationale about future-directed self-concern is equally challenging for both theories of persistence. Moreover, I indicate, that both of these theories fall and stand on the practical feasibility of hidden ontological presuppositions about specific second-order notions of concerns of persons for their future.

Letters to our Future Selves? High-Powered Replication Attempts Question Effects on Future Orientation, Delinquent Decisions, and Risky Investments

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 521-554
Author(s):  
Laura Quinten ◽  
Anja Murmann ◽  
Hanna A. Genau ◽  
Rafaela Warkentin ◽  
Rainer Banse
Keyword(s):  
Problem Behavior ◽  
Related Problem ◽  
Future Orientation ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Sample Sizes ◽  
Replication Studies ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Letter Task

Enhancing people's future orientation, in particular continuity with their future selves, has been proposed as promising to mitigate self-control–related problem behavior. In two pre-registered, direct replication studies, we tested a subtle manipulation, that is, writing a letter to one's future self, in order to reduce delinquent decisions (van Gelder et al., 2013, Study 1) and risky investments (Monroe et al., 2017, Study 1). With samples of n = 314 and n = 463, which is 2.5 times the original studies' sample sizes, the results suggested that the expected effects are either non-existent or smaller than originally reported, and/or dependent on factors not examined. Vividness of the future self was successfully manipulated in Study 2, but manipulation checks overall indicated that the letter task is not reliable to alter future orientation. We discuss ideas to integrate self-affirmation approaches and to test less subtle manipulations in samples with substantial, myopia-related self-control deficits.

Identity-Based Motivation

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphna Oyserman
Keyword(s):  
Self Esteem ◽  
The Self ◽  
Personal Traits ◽  
Underlying Process ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
The Future ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Over Time

People experience themselves across time—recalling who they were and imagining who they will become. This consciousness of the self over time (Tulving, 1985; Wheeler, Stuss, & Tulving, 1997) and the ability to mentally “time travel” is a general human capacity (Epstude & Peetz, 2012) that develops by about age five (Atance, 2008; Atance & Jackson, 2009; Atance & Meltzoff, 2005; Russell, Alexis, & Clayton, 2010). For this reason, the future self can play a role in current choices from an early age. Indeed, when asked, people report imagining their future selves; they can describe both positive and negative possible identities their future selves might have (Dalley & Buunk, 2011; Norman & Aron, 2003). People say they care about whether they are making progress toward attaining their positive and avoiding their negative future identities (Vignoles, Manzi, Regalia, Jemmolo, & Scabini, 2008). They even report that their future selves are truer versions of themselves than their present selves, which are limited by the demands of everyday life (Wakslak, Nussbaum, Liberman, & Trope, 2008). Given all that, it might seem unnecessary to test whether people’s current actions are influenced by their future identities. Surely it has to be the case that future identities matter. Yet uncovering the circumstances in which the future self and other aspects of identity matter for behavior has turned out to be difficult. It is not always apparent that identities matter in spite of people’s feelings that they must. Figuring out the underlying process is critical to reducing the gap between aspirations and attainments and is the focus of this book. Does the future self really make such a difference in behavior? In the next sections, I provide a perspective and research evidence to answer the question. While often used interchangeably, the terms self, self-esteem, and identity are based on different concepts (Oyserman, Elmore, & Smith, 2012). Self-esteem is the positive or negative regard one has for oneself. Identities are descriptors (e.g., homeowner, middle-aged), personal traits (e.g., shy, outgoing), and social roles (e.g., mother, daughter) and the content that goes with these traits, descriptors, and roles (e.g., proud, worried).

scholarly journals THE FUTURE ME, RETIREE: USING THE FUTURE SELF TO ENHANCE LONG-TERM FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. 693-693
Author(s):  
P Lemaster ◽  
A Faber ◽  
K Fernholz ◽  
K Finch ◽  
E Kransvik
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Financial Decision Making ◽  
The Future ◽  
Financial Decision ◽  
Future Self

scholarly journals Caring for the future can turn tragedy into comedy for long-term collective action under risk of collapse

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (23) ◽  
pp. 12915-12922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfram Barfuss ◽  
Jonathan F. Donges ◽  
Vítor V. Vasconcelos ◽  
Jürgen Kurths ◽  
Simon A. Levin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Experimental Testing ◽  
The Public ◽  
Regime Changes ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Future Outcomes ◽  
The Impact

We will need collective action to avoid catastrophic climate change, and this will require valuing the long term as well as the short term. Shortsightedness and uncertainty have hindered progress in resolving this collective action problem and have been recognized as important barriers to cooperation among humans. Here, we propose a coupled social–ecological dilemma to investigate the interdependence of three well-identified components of this cooperation problem: 1) timescales of collapse and recovery in relation to time preferences regarding future outcomes, 2) the magnitude of the impact of collapse, and 3) the number of actors in the collective. We find that, under a sufficiently severe and time-distant collapse, how much the actors care for the future can transform the game from a tragedy of the commons into one of coordination, and even into a comedy of the commons in which cooperation dominates. Conversely, we also find conditions under which even strong concern for the future still does not transform the problem from tragedy to comedy. For a large number of participating actors, we find that the critical collapse impact, at which these game regime changes happen, converges to a fixed value of collapse impact per actor that is independent of the enhancement factor of the public good, which is usually regarded as the driver of the dilemma. Our results not only call for experimental testing but also help explain why polarization in beliefs about human-caused climate change can threaten global cooperation agreements.

Identity-based motivation and the paradox of the future self: Getting going requires thinking about time (later) in time (now)

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphna Oyserman ◽  
Andrew Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Motivation Theory ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
The Future ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
Future Self

Abstract People can imagine their future selves without taking future-focused action. Identity-based motivation theory explains why. Hoerl & McCormack outline how. Present-focused action prevails because future “me” feels irrelevant to the choices facing current “me” unless future “me” is experienced as occurring now or as linked to current “me” via if-then simulations. This entails reasoning in time and about time.

The Role of Psychological Connectedness to the Future Self in Decisions Over Time

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oleg Urminsky
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Time Discounting ◽  
The Future ◽  
Core Identity ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Over Time

What motivates people to make decisions in the present that benefit their self in the future? An emerging literature suggests that farsightedness is influenced by the degree of connection people perceive between their present and future self. People who see their core identity as changing substantially over time, into a substantially different future self, are less likely to forgo benefits in the present to ensure larger deferred benefits to be enjoyed by that future self they are not as connected to. Recent lab, field, and neural evidence has related such connectedness to time discounting, as well as more generally to a range of provident behaviors. This review discusses what is known and what remains to be studied about the bases of perceived connectedness, how people incorporate connectedness into their decision-making, and which psychological and contextual factors may influence the role of connectedness in decision-making.

scholarly journals Back to the Future Consequences: Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) Measure Correlates with Exercise Intensity

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-57
Author(s):  
Calvin G. Isch ◽  
Samuel A. Nordli ◽  
Peter M. Todd
Keyword(s):  
Self Control ◽  
Exercise Behavior ◽  
Consideration Of Future Consequences ◽  
Future Goals ◽  
The Future ◽  
Intensity Of Exercise ◽  
Future Outcomes ◽  
Future Consequences ◽  
Present Activity

From training for a marathon to completing a college degree, long-term goals are used to accomplish several highly-valued life achievements. These goals require present activity with predominantly future benefits, a tradeoff that requires individuals to exert self-control as they work toward their goals. While these goals are highly valued, people frequently fail at achieving them. What individual and situational differences allow some people to succeed at working toward future goals? To address this question, we measured trait and motivational differences alongside exercise behavior, an activity with predominantly future benefits, in a campus gym. Specifically, we measured how the amount people report thinking about and working toward the future, a trait captured by the Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) questionnaire, correlates with workout behavior. We find that CFC scores predict several aspects of exercise including frequency of engagement, intensity of exercise, and perceived benefits associated with the activity. Overall, our study provides evidence that high CFC individuals, who pay greater attention to future outcomes, exhibit increased present performance to achieve them, a finding that provides evidence on how to aid in the achievement of long-term goals.

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