Finding Your Future Self

We often treat our future selves they way we would treat others, preferring to help later than sooner, says Scientific American. Think of your future self and you’ll save more money. “A growing body of work suggests that the more you feel your future self is really you, the more you’ll put in his or her—whoops, your—bank account. When making decisions, we often treat our future self the way we would treat another person, found a study in 2008 by Princeton psychologist Emily Pronin. People in the study often shied away from doing something helpful but unpleasant when they had to do it right at that moment. But when their help was needed a few months or a year down the line, they were more likely to sign up.”