Saving for your future self: The role of imaginary experiences

Abstract

Despite increased longevity, many people fail to save the funds necessary to support their retirement. In an attempt both to elucidate and remedy this failing, research exploring the “future-self continuity” hypothesis has revealed that temporal discounting is decreased and saving increased when connections between one’s current and future self are strengthened. Here, we explored the possibility that a basic component of mental imagery – spatial visual perspective – may be an important determinant of people’s decisions to spend now or save for the future. The results of two experiments supported this prediction. Rates of saving were enhanced when a distant-future event was generated from a third-person vs. first-person vantage point, an effect that was mediated by visual bodily awareness during mental imagery.

Keywords:

• Self
• prospection
• mental imagery
• visual perspective
• intertemporal choice

Notes

1. Potentially widening consumer access to basic immersive technology, Sony’s PlayStation VR Headset currently retails at $399. In addition, for as little as $0.99 people can preview their elderly face using apps such as AgingBooth.

2. An a priori sample size calculation based on the average effect size reported by Hershfield et al. (2011) – G*Power, d = .67, α = .05, power = 80%) revealed a requirement of 98 participants. This sample size is consistent with previous research exploring the effects of perspective taking and temporal construal on mental simulation (e.g. Libby et al., 2014; Macrae et al., 2015).