INCREASING SAVING BEHAVIOR THROUGH AGE-PROGRESSED RENDERINGS OF THE FUTURE SELF

Hal E Hershfield; Daniel G Goldstein; William F Sharpe; Jesse Fox; Leo Yeykelis; Laura L Carstensen; Jeremy N Bailenson

doi:10.1509/jmkr.48.SPL.S23

INCREASING SAVING BEHAVIOR THROUGH AGE-PROGRESSED RENDERINGS OF THE FUTURE SELF

J Mark Res. 2011 Nov:48:S23-S37. doi: 10.1509/jmkr.48.SPL.S23.

Authors

Hal E Hershfield¹, Daniel G Goldstein², William F Sharpe³, Jesse Fox⁴, Leo Yeykelis⁵, Laura L Carstensen⁶, Jeremy N Bailenson⁷

Affiliations

¹ Post-doctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2001 Sheridan Rd, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
² Assistant Professor of Marketing at London Business School and Principal Research Scientist at Yahoo Research, 110 West 40 Street, 17 Floor, New York, NY 10028, USA.
³ STANCO 25 Professor of Finance, Emeritus at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, 518 Memorial Way, Stanford, CA 94305-5015, USA.
⁴ Assistant Professor of Communication at The Ohio State University, 3016 Derby Hall, 154 North Oval Mall, Columbus, OH, 43210-1339.
⁵ Student in the Communication Department at Stanford University, 420 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
⁶ Fairleigh Dickinson, Jr. Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, Department of Psychology, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
⁷ Associate Professor of Communication at Stanford University Department of Communication, 420 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.

Abstract

Many people fail to save what they need to for retirement (Munnell, Webb, and Golub-Sass 2009). Research on excessive discounting of the future suggests that removing the lure of immediate rewards by pre-committing to decisions, or elaborating the value of future rewards can both make decisions more future-oriented. In this article, we explore a third and complementary route, one that deals not with present and future rewards, but with present and future selves. In line with thinkers who have suggested that people may fail, through a lack of belief or imagination, to identify with their future selves (Parfit 1971; Schelling 1984), we propose that allowing people to interact with age-progressed renderings of themselves will cause them to allocate more resources toward the future. In four studies, participants interacted with realistic computer renderings of their future selves using immersive virtual reality hardware and interactive decision aids. In all cases, those who interacted with virtual future selves exhibited an increased tendency to accept later monetary rewards over immediate ones.

Keywords: Retirement saving; future self-continuity; immersive virtual reality; intertemporal choice; temporal discounting.

Grants and funding

P30 AG024957/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States