Hal Hershfield: Connecting with Our Future Selves

Why do people have such a difficult time exhibiting self-control over time, and what strategies can promote wiser long-term decisions? In this talk, I will overview work that my team has conducted over the last ten plus years on the barriers that stand between what people say they want to do and what they will actually end up doing. Here, I highlight the tendency to view our future selves as if they are strangers, and how this tendency can have serious effects on the choices we make. I then discuss a number of solutions that have been demonstrated to help people overcome these tendencies.