Van Gelder, J. L., Hershfield, H. E., &Nordgren, L. F. (2013). Vividness of the future self predicts delinquency. Psychological science, 24(6), 974-980.
The tendency to live in the here and now, and the failure to think through the delayed consequences of behavior, is one of the strongest individual-level correlates of delinquency. We tested the hypothesis that this correlation results from a limited ability to imagine one’s self in the future, which leads to opting for immediate gratification. Strengthening the vividness of the future self should therefore reduce ...