Fletcher, Daniel
(2025)
Me and My Future Self: How Perceived Connectedness Shapes Future Thinking and Decision-Making Processes.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
Just as we sometimes feel like a different person now compared to what we were like in the past, we may also imagine becoming a different person in the future. Accumulating evidence indicates that when individuals feel dissimilar to their possible future self, they more strongly prioritise present over future self-interests in their decision-making. However, less is known about how perceived dissimilarity – or low psychological connectedness – to a future self shapes future thinking and decision-making processes beyond intertemporal trade-offs. In particular, how do people think about future events when anticipating intervening self-change? And what kind of attributes do individuals prioritise when the outcome of their choices will be experienced by a dissimilar future self?
Research in the present thesis used cross-sectional, experimental, and qualitative approaches to examine relationships between psychological connectedness, future thinking processes, and judgement and decision-making. Chapter 2 (two studies) indicated that lower self-reported psychological connectedness was associated with an increased tendency to analyse what future events expressed about self-identity, and greater use of third-person mental imagery, where the self is visible within an imagined event, as though seen from the perspective of an outside observer. However, experimentally manipulating psychological connectedness by leading participants to anticipate change versus stability in identity-relevant characteristics did not influence outcomes in either study. Research in Chapter 3 (four studies) revealed potential downstream effects of an increased focus on identity-expressiveness, with individuals attaching higher importance to future decision attributes that conveyed a desirable self-image when anticipating intervening self-change between making a choice and experiencing the outcome. Chapter 4 (one study) aimed to establish rich insight into how individuals think about their future self and its link to present identity during a major life transition: starting university. First-year undergraduate students wrote a postcard to their graduating future self and completed measures of psychological connectedness. Content analysis of postcards indicated that while students often hoped for change and self-growth during their time at university, there were also ways in which they appeared to seek continuity; either through a consciously expressed desire for identity-relevant characteristics to persist in a future self, or by drawing narrative connections between different life stages. Analysis of pronoun use in postcards also pointed to potential distinctions in how students’ conceptualised feelings of being ‘connected’ and ‘similar’ to their future self. While previous research has often considered these items as capturing the same construct, results in Chapter 4 found contrasting associations for the two measures, with higher connectedness – but lower similarity – correlated with an increased tendency to refer to present and future selves collectively (e.g., “we”, “us”), and a decreased tendency to use first-person singular (e.g., “I”) pronouns. Finally, Chapter 5 (one study) tested the hypothesis that perspective-taking abilities would particularly contribute to future-oriented decisions when present and future selves were perceived as dissimilar. This hypothesis was not confirmed, though results provided novel evidence that higher psychological connectedness and perspective-taking abilities were selectively associated with an increased tendency to make future-oriented monetary choices among participants who considered themselves to be higher on the socioeconomic ladder.
Overall, findings contribute to a greater understanding of how psychological connectedness relates to future thinking and decision-making processes. This thesis has potential implications for organisations and professionals seeking to shape or support individual decision-making and well-being during periods of significant personal change, such as life transitions.
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