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.

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.

Self-Control, Cooperation, and Intention’s Authority

2020 ◽  
pp. 315-333
Author(s):  
Lilian O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
Cooperative Behavior ◽  
Self Control ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Self

In this chapter the author defends a novel view of the relationships among intention for the future, self-control, and cooperation. The author argues that when an agent forms an intention for the future she comes to regard herself as criticizable if she does not act in accordance with her intention. In contexts where the agent has inclinations that run contrary to her unrescinded intention, her disposition for reflexive criticism helps her to resist these inclinations. Such intentions have, the author argues, a built-in mechanism for exercising self-control. The author goes on to argue that this mechanism can also function as a mechanism for cooperative behavior. Agents are not just equipped to abide by plans for the future, they are also thereby equipped for exercising self-control and for cooperating.

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).

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.

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.

Self-Control, Mental Time Travel, and the Temporally Extended Self

2020 ◽  
pp. 434-452
Author(s):  
Erica Cosentino
Keyword(s):  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Mental Time Travel ◽  
Extended Self ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Over Time

Intertemporal choice scenarios are scenarios in which someone must make a choice whose consequences play out over time. In those scenarios, the capacity to exercise self-control involves making a choice that does not provide an immediate advantage for the present self and instead benefits the future self. In this chapter, the author argues that the extent to which one can resist temptation in those scenarios is a function of the extent to which one cares about one’s future self. Caring about one’s future self entails having a temporally extended self. Given that mental time travel is crucially involved in the coming about of the temporally extended self, the author acknowledges its importance in self-control. After clarifying what this hypothesis does not imply about the relation between mental time travel and self-control, she discusses two puzzles concerning the phenomenology of resisting temptation and, respectively, the explanatory power of the temporally extended self and a possible solution.

Pleas for patience from the cumulative future self

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam J. Maglio ◽  
Hal E. Hershfield
Keyword(s):  
Future Selves ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Self

Abstract Current selves wield all the power in intertemporal tradeoffs. Although one set of future selves will make similar tradeoffs in the future, another self – who we term the cumulative future self – falls on the receiving end of those dictated decisions. How current selves commune with the cumulative future self determines whether the former heed pleas, from the latter, for patience.

Dialecticism and the Future Self in Cultural Contexts

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Wang ◽  
Yubo Hou ◽  
Tracy Gould
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Dialectical Thinking ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Cultural Foundations ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Past Experiences

Dialectical thinking reflects both a view of the world and a view of oneself as fluid and changing. This chapter discusses the role of dialectical thinking in people’s prediction of changes in their future selves. Focus is on the future self-concept, namely, the conceptual representation of the self in the future, and the episodic future self, namely, the anticipation of specific future personal events. It is proposed that dialectical thinking, as a form of cultural knowledge, may guide people in their perception of their future selves relative to their present and past selves and in their construction of plausible future events from past experiences. The chapter further discusses the relation of dialectical thinking and the future self to psychological well-being. Throughout the discussion, original data from a cross-cultural project with mainland Chinese and European American college students are presented, to illustrate the psychological and cultural foundations of the future self.

scholarly journals Parental Socialization and Development of Chinese Youths: A Multivariate and Comparative Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 1730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerf W. K. Yeung ◽  
Eileen Y. H. Tsang ◽  
Hui-Fang Chen
Keyword(s):  
Problem Behavior ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Future Orientation ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Family Processes ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Authoritative Parenting ◽  
Parental Socialization ◽  
Youth Outcomes ◽  
Externalizing Problem

Parental socialization has been recently reported as a multifaceted concept, which includes parenting practices and family processes. Nevertheless, prior family research generally treated parental socialization tantamount to parenting behavior only and overlooked its different effects on multiple youth outcomes simultaneously, especially in the Chinese population. This study, with a sample of 223 Chinese parent-youth dyads (80.7% mothers; 55.6% male youths; meanage = 16.7 years), found that both authoritative parenting and positive family processes, as measured by a multi-informant approach, significantly predicted higher self-esteem, self-control, future orientation, other perspective taking and lower externalizing problem behavior of Chinese youths concomitantly. Furthermore, youth self-esteem was found to significantly mediate the effects of authoritative parenting and positive family processes on their self-control, future orientation, other perspective taking and externalizing problem behavior, and different facets of parental socialization significantly predicted the youth outcomes differentially. Results of this study highlight importance of considering the multifaceted nature of parental socialization and interrelations of youth development.

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