Future self

Key takeaways

Future self belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Future self to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Future self from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In the psychology of self, the future self concerns the processes and consequences associated with thinking about oneself in the future. People think about their future selves similarly to how they think about other people. The extent to which people feel psychologically connected (e.g., similarity, closeness) to their future self influences how well they treat their future self. When people feel connected to their future self, they are more likely to save for retirement, make healthy decisions, and avoid ethical transgressions. Interventions that increase feelings of connectedness with future selves can improve future-oriented decision making across these domains.

Philosophical foundations

Psychological research on the future self often attributes its theoretical foundations to the philosopher Derek Parfit. Parfit argued that people might differ in the extent to which they feel similar and connected to themselves in the future. Under Parfit's conceptualization, people act rationally by basing their concern for their future on the degree of connectedness between present and future selves. According to Parfit, it is rational for people who perceive very little connectedness with their future self to act in ways that neglect the future self (e.g., by smoking). The psychological work that followed did not similarly argue for Parfit's normative view but has instead attempted to test the descriptive validity of Parfit's theory. Daniel Kolak has extensively criticized the idea of the existence of a future self. In his book I am You, Kolak describes three opposing philosophical views regarding the continuity of consciousness: Closed individualism, Empty individualism, and Open individualism. Closed Individualism is defined as the default common sense view of identity where one's identity consists of a line stretching across time, which Kolak, argues is incoherent. Empty Individualism is the view that one's identity only exists for an infinitesimally small amount of time, and an individual person has an entirely different identity from moment to moment. Kolak instead advocates for Open Individualism, which is the view that everyone is in reality the same being, and that the "self" doesn't actually exist at all, similar to anattā in Buddhist philosophy.

Psychological theory Social psychological and neurological evidence suggests that people think about themselves in the future similarly to how they think about other people. Just as feeling close to others increases prosocial giving, feeling close to one's future self motivates people to delay present gratification in order to benefit themselves in the future.

Measuring psychological connectedness Shane Frederick initially tested whether the degree of connectedness with the future self is associated with less discounting of future benefits (in dollar amounts and time). Asking subjects how similar they felt to their future selves on a 1-100 scale, Frederick did not find a statistically significant relationship between the degree of connectedness and discounting of future benefits. However, later researchers argued Frederick did not find a connection because of the way he measured connectedness. In 2009, Hal Hershfield and colleagues introduced a new measurement of psychological connectedness by adapting the Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale, where the relationship between present and future selves is depicted with seven pairs of successively overlapping circles. Using this measurement, Hershfield, as well as Daniel Bartels and Oleg Urminsky, have now demonstrated a robust relationship between psychological connectedness and discount rates. The more psychologically connectedness people feel between present and future selves, the more they care about the future, and the more they discount present benefits.

Manipulating psychological connectedness The research that followed showed systematic ways to enhance psychological connectedness. Experiments have manipulated connectedness by having participants:

Interact with a visual depiction of their future self (increased connectedness) List ways in which they expect to be similar to themselves in the future (increased connectedness) Expect an upcoming event (e.g., college graduation) to fundamentally change who they are (decreased connectedness) The randomized experiments revealed a causal relationship between feeling connected to one's future self and subsequently making more patient long-term decisions.

Policy applications

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Future self

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Future self claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Future self before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Future self ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Future self

In research: Future self appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Future self in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Future self is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Conceptions of self, Identity (philosophy), so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Future self outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Future self in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Future self means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Future self out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Future self in simple terms?

In the psychology of self, the future self concerns the processes and consequences associated with thinking about oneself in the future. People think about their future selves similarly to how they think about other people.

Why does Future self matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Future self?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Future self.