Ersner-Hershfield, H., Wimmer, G. E., &Knutson, B. (2009). Saving for the future self: Neural measures of future self-continuity predict temporal discounting.
Despite increases in the human life span, people have not increased their rate of saving. In a phenomenon known as ‘temporal discounting’, people value immediate gains over future gains. According to a future self-continuity hypothesis, individuals perceive and treat the future self differently from the present self, and so might fail to save for their future. Neuroimaging offers a novel means of testing this hypothesis, ...