You Make Better Decisions If You “See” Your

Senior Self
by 
 Hal Hershfield

SLIDE 2: The finding: Many people feel disconnected from the individuals they’ll be in the
future and, as a result, discount rewards that would later benefit them. But brief exposure to aged
images of the self can change that behavior.

SLIDE 3: The research: Hal Hershfield ran fMRI scans on subjects and found that the neural
patterns seen when people described themselves 10 years in the future were markedly different
from those seen when they described their current selves.

In another task people whose brain activity changed the most when they began discussing their
future selves were the least likely to favor large long-term gains over small immediate ones.
However, in follow-up experiments, when subjects were shown aged images of themselves, this
behavior disappeared/changed.

Interview by Alison Beard

Hershfield did a study with G. Elliott Wimmer and Brian Knutson at Stanford, and was the first to
use fMRI technology to document the disconnect people feel with their future selves. But it built
on existing research. For example, one study asked people how many hours they’d be willing to
spend tutoring someone immediately and in the future and how much time they thought their
classmates could donate immediately. They were stingy with their own time in the present but
more willing to volunteer their time in the future and their classmates’ time in the present, which
suggests they thought of their future selves and other people in the same way. Studies have also
shown that we have a third-person perspective on ourselves in the distant future. So, if you imagine
your birthday next year, you’ll envision the scene as if you were looking out from your own eyes.
But if you imagine it 20 years from now, you’ll probably picture an older version of yourself
blowing out the candles. This is true for most but not all people. The scans revealed that some
people did think of their current and future selves as the same person, and according to data
collected through this research, these people were more likely to delay their gains. That’s why we
wanted to see if we could change the attitudes of everyone else. Could we help people get to know
—and show more regard for—their future selves?

SLIDE 4: The challenge: How can we help people to get to know their future selves?

SLIDE 5: HBR: Without using a time machine. (1st Method).

Right. There’s a large body of literature showing that emotional responses are heightened when
you give people vivid examples: Donors give more to charity when they hear from a victim;
pulmonologists smoke less than other doctors because they see dirty lungs all day. So hershfeild
partnered with Daniel Goldstein of Microsoft Research, Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford, and several
other Stanford researchers to see if giving people vivid images of their older selves would change
their spending and saving preferences. They took photos of subjects and used software to create
digital avatars—half of which were aged with jowls, bags under the eyes, and gray hair. Wearing
goggles and sensors, participants explored a virtual environment and came to a mirror that
reflected either their current-self or future-self avatar.

SLIDE 6: The Result.

Afterward, they asked them to allocate $1,000 among four options—buying something nice for
someone special, investing in a retirement fund, planning a fun event, or putting money into a
checking account. Subjects exposed to aged avatars put nearly twice as much money into the
retirement fund as the other people.

Later they had some people see the older avatars of other subjects to test if that affected their
choices, but it didn’t. Only those who saw their own future selves were more likely to favor long-
term rewards. this happened because people only change their mindset and decision making when
something bothers to themselves only. This is a harsh reality of society but it is truth.

That seems like a really complicated way to get people to save money.

SLIDE 7: The Power of Suggestion

In this one they have tested lower-tech options. In this experiment they took pictures of people
with happy, sad, and neutral expressions and inserted them into a retirement-savings slider tool.
The idea was to show users how their decisions affected both their future income and their well-
being in old age. Some subjects used a tool with pictures of themselves that had been aged. They
set aside 6.8% of their pay for retirement, on average, versus 5.2% for those using a tool with
pictures of their current selves. After that, they ran the experiment using a national pool of online
participants who uploaded their own head shots. Even with variable photo quality and static
expressions, the “aged face” tools prompted people to save 6.2% on average, versus 4.4% for the
“current self” tools. Merrill Lynch (Merrill, previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American
investing and wealth management division of Bank of America.) is already using some of this
technology on its site.
SLIDE 8: So there are applications for financial services. What other behaviors might you
change by making people feel more connected to their senior selves?

Hershfeild worked with Jean-Louis van Gelder of the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime
and Law Enforcement and Loran Nordgren of the Kellogg School to test whether people act more
ethically when they feel closer to their future selves. In one study young adults who’d been asked
to write a letter to themselves 20 years in the future were less likely to say they’d make an amoral
choices —buying a stolen laptop, for example—than people who’d been asked to write to
themselves in three months’ time.

In a second study, using the virtual techniques they have described, they found that 18-to-26-year-
olds presented with avatars of their 40-year-old selves were less likely than those who saw current-
self avatars to cheat on a test. Typically, the goal was to prevent crime by scaring kids about the
consequences—taking young offenders on tours of adult prisons, for example. But our findings
suggest there might be a more subtle way to get them to behave better.

If something as simple as letter writing works as well as virtual reality, why not just do that?

I’d argue that the aged photos are more fun and engaging, and it’s an experience you’ll remember,
which could heighten or prolong the effect. That’s something we might study in the future.

SLIDE 9: What about health? Can you use this technology to get people to stop smoking,
use sunscreen, and eat well?

Dan Goldstein and Hershfeild are working on a study on weight loss; they are hoping to present
people with full-body images of themselves in the future that show how diet and exercise will
change them.

Also working on an antismoking application, too; instead of showing people diseased organs or
strangers with tracheotomies, they would be able to show them what the habit will do to their own
faces and bodies, which their findings suggest would be more powerful. My aunt keeps telling me
I should look into skin care, too.

SLIDE 10: How decision making is related to consumer behavior.

Different people, no matter how similar they are, make different purchasing decisions. You might
be very interested in purchasing a Smart Car. But your best friend might want to buy a Ford 150
truck. So businesses depend upon decision making of consumers. Some businesses, including a
growing number of startups, are using blogs and social networking Web sites to gather information
about their customers.

Decision making will automatically change when you will “See” your Senior Self because now
you will spend your money and time wisely on only those things which will provide you some
benefit in the future. In this way your purchasing and buying decisions will be changed. for
example: you will now spend only on those food products and items that are good for your health
and have health benefits. Same will happen to you financially now you will save more money that
will help you after retirement.

 Marketers have had better luck linking people’s self-concept to their buying behavior. Your
self-concept is how you see yourself—be it positive or negative. Your ideal self is how you
would like to see yourself—whether it’s prettier, more popular, more eco-conscious.

 Marketing researchers believe people buy products to enhance how they feel about
themselves—to get themselves closer to their ideal selves, in other words.

SLIDE 11: So should we all hang pictures of our aged selves in our houses?

That could work, as long as you keep noticing the picture and recognizing that that future person is
dependent on the current you and is ultimately the same you—just occupying a slightly different
body.