Ten years from now, you will still be you, right? It depends on who you ask, and when. Present You, for one, is not so sure. That much is clear from several studies revealing that we often treat our future selves like complete strangers.
In one, , a psychologist at Princeton University, asked people to make decisions about how much of a disgusting cocktail to drink. Some chose for themselves, some for the next participant and some for themselves in two weeks’ time. When choosing for themselves, people opted for the smallest dose. But they went for a larger amount for another person – and for their future selves.
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: thinking about your current self fires up different brain regions than does thinking about your future self, which .
Another study focused on our tendency to value immediate rewards more highly than deferred benefits – what economists call “future discounting”. It’s the reason you struggle to save money or choose the healthy salad. The good news is that by getting better acquainted with Future You, you can make better choices in the here and now.
Read more: Your true self
Who are you? An entity continuous in time, an individual with a personality, a unique bundle of memories? Only now are we truly getting to grips with what our sense of self is and isn’t, and how it can change – insights that could help us live better with ourselves and with others
That was the upshot when at the University of California, Los Angeles, teamed up with virtual reality expert Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford University to bring people face-to-face with how they might look aged 70. The idea was to make this future self a more concrete, real person. When asked to decide about current pension contributions, saved more than twice as much, on average, than those shown pictures of their current selves. “The findings suggest that being able to sit down and visualise one’s future self, and at least seriously consider who that person is, can help people frame their decisions about retirement,” says Hershfield.
Getting to know your future self might even make you a better person. People who feel less strongly connected to their future self are more tolerant of dubious business practices than others, and show a greater willingness to lie and cheat. But simply asking them to think about themselves in 10 years’ time, and listing all the ways they think they’ll be the same person in a decade, .
So the next time you’re wrestling with a decision to save or splurge, or to hit the gym or slouch on the couch, don’t just think about yourself – think about Future You. They will thank you for it, eventually.
Not feeling yourself
Some conditions make us lose crucial pieces of what we view as our selves
The petrified self
An important part of selfhood is the ability to form and recall autobiographical memories, so it will come as no surprise that people who no longer have this power report an incomplete sense of self. This “petrified self” might also explain why people with dementia are often not aware of their condition.
Psychedelics haze
Anyone can alter their sense of self using psychedelic substances such as LSD or psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms. People under the influence often feel that the boundary between the self and the world melts away – a result thought to be down to a reduction in activity in the anterior cingulate cortex.
Depersonalisation disorder
Ever felt detached from yourself, as if observing from afar? For people with depersonalisation-derealisation disorder, that feeling is persistent. They feel as if they have lost control of their thoughts and actions, like they are an automaton or they are living in a movie.
Body integrity identity disorder
Some people have the powerful sense that one of their limbs isn’t their own, sometimes so intense that they are driven to amputate the “foreign” part. Neuroscientists think it is down to a malfunction in the brain region involved in giving us a map of our own body.
Cotard’s syndrome
In this most extreme instance of a self gone awry, your brain tells you that parts of your body, or even your entire body, are dead. Some people with Cotard’s syndrome plan their own funerals, or even starve to death because they feel they no longer need to eat.
This article appeared in print under the headline “The good delusion”
