Retrospective future thinking as a novel method to imagine the future: remembering autobiographical events from the perspective of the future self

ABSTRACT

People think retrospectively about past events and prospectively about future events. Here, the novel method of retrospective future thinking is introduced to investigate the characteristics of autobiographical events reported as if they had been already experienced. In total, 166 participants were asked to (1) generate cultural life scripts and (2) to imagine themselves being 100-years old. From this perspective, they reported, dated and rated on valence their seven most important events. Results provide evidence that the cultural life script guides the recall and, more so, the imagination of retrospectively reported autobiographical events. Exploratory analysis of age effects indicated that older participants reported events that were more realistic, less scripted and wider distributed across the life span. This provides the first evidence that retrospective future thinking can alter older adults’ life perspective by expanding their period for experiencing important events beyond the reminiscence bump years.

KEYWORDS:

• Autobiographical memory
• mental time travel
• retrospective future thinking
• cultural life script

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Mina Murat and Felix Holling for their support with data coding and Lynn Ann Watson for her comments on the manuscript. The manuscript is based on the first author’s master thesis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [AR], upon reasonable request.