The Motivational Underpinnings of Thrift and Farsighted Behavior

How can individuals be encouraged to make personal decisions that are in their long-term self-interest? Short-sighted choices are prevalent and have substantial negative consequences for many aspects of life, including financial savings and investments, health, and public policy. Such choices can be thought of as a failure of people to truly act in their own long-term interests, instead succumbing to short-term concerns and immediate temptations. We thoroughly examine one critical determinant of whether people act in accordance with their own long-run self-interest, namely, how people view their own future selves. We define connectedness to the future self as the subjective perception that a person's current important psychological properties will be shared by the
future self. Our initial findings suggest that when people feel more connected to their future selves, they care more about their future outcomes, facilitating far-sighted decisions. We are now studying the degree to which connectedness to the future self affects decision-making by providing the underlying motivation for thrift. In doing so, we hope to develop interventions that increase far-sighted decision-making.