The brain differentiates between thinking about similar and dissimilar others. We tend to think about our future self not as our current self, using different brain regions to think about future likes, dislikes, and goals. This leads us to treat our future self like a stranger, causing misery in life. We have a strange theory about our future self, seeing them as an aspirational self who has solved our problems, but also as someone who is not perturbed by much. This leads to making decisions that favor our current self, underestimating the enjoyment and pain our future self will experience. Treating our future selves as strangers means we may treat them poorly, just like we sometimes treat strangers badly.
Who do we volunteer to run a gruelling half-marathon? Who do we expect to give up sugar, or quit drinking? Who do we demand clears out the garage in the middle of summer?
Ourselves. Mean, right?
Turns out we make demands on our future selves that our present selves would think are unrealistic or unreasonable. And the reason we do it is because our minds are really bad at anticipating the wants and needs we'll have in a week, a month, or a year from now. And that harms our happiness.
Talking before a live audience in Somerville, MA, Dr Laurie Santos and Harvard professor Jason Mitchell explore how we can be kinder to both our present and future selves.
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