Hal Hershfield
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Research Index Considering the Future Self Considering Future Outcomes Considering Other Times and Time Itself Reflecting on The Past
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AboutBook Research Research Index Considering the Future Self Considering Future Outcomes Considering Other Times and Time Itself Reflecting on The Past Media Press Selected Podcasts Video Contact
Hal Hershfield
How do people perceive the passage of time, and how do such perceptions influence decision-making and consumer behavior?

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Featured
Want to Save More for Retirement? First, Imagine Your Future Self | The Wall Street Journal
Mar 5, 2025
Considering The Future Self
Want to Save More for Retirement? First, Imagine Your Future Self | The Wall Street Journal
Mar 5, 2025
Considering The Future Self

By Martha C. White

Researchers find that people who set savings goals after picturing their retirement are more likely to be financially prepared

Read more…

Mar 5, 2025
Considering The Future Self
What I Learned When I Stopped Watching the Stock Market | The Wall Street Journal
Jan 26, 2024
Considering The Future Self
What I Learned When I Stopped Watching the Stock Market | The Wall Street Journal
Jan 26, 2024
Considering The Future Self

By Jason Zweig

Over-reacting to the news can poison your portfolio and sour your life. Here’s how to keep your investment plan on track.

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Jan 26, 2024
Considering The Future Self
Why is it so hard for our brains to plan for the future? | NPR
Dec 29, 2023
Considering The Future Self
Why is it so hard for our brains to plan for the future? | NPR
Dec 29, 2023
Considering The Future Self

Who will you be in 10 years? In 20 years? Envisioning how you will evolve is very hard. This hour, TED speakers share ideas on how to better plan for the future, while allowing for the unexpected.

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Dec 29, 2023
Considering The Future Self
Time travel: What if you met your future self? | BBC
Nov 14, 2023
Considering The Future Self
Time travel: What if you met your future self? | BBC
Nov 14, 2023
Considering The Future Self

By Hal Hershfield

Imagining a conversation with "future you" has multiple benefits for your wellbeing.

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Nov 14, 2023
Considering The Future Self
Dreading That Event You Said Yes to Ages Ago? Be Kinder to Your ‘Future Self' | The New York Times
Aug 11, 2023
Considering The Future Self
Dreading That Event You Said Yes to Ages Ago? Be Kinder to Your ‘Future Self' | The New York Times
Aug 11, 2023
Considering The Future Self

By Jancee Dunn

Experts share five tips for making (and keeping) commitments.

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Aug 11, 2023
Considering The Future Self
The Benefits of Getting to Know Your Future Self | The Wall Street Journal
Jun 17, 2023
Considering The Future Self
The Benefits of Getting to Know Your Future Self | The Wall Street Journal
Jun 17, 2023
Considering The Future Self

By Hal Hershfield

Many of us feel little connection with the person we’ll be decades from now. That can lead to shortsighted behavior that hurts us in the long run.

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Jun 17, 2023
Considering The Future Self
The Time Traveling Mistake We Make When We Procrastinate | Behavioral Scientist
Jun 12, 2023
Considering The Future Self
The Time Traveling Mistake We Make When We Procrastinate | Behavioral Scientist
Jun 12, 2023
Considering The Future Self

By Hal Hershfield

Mozart, the great and enduring musical genius, doesn’t conform to our stereotypical notion of a musical prodigy.

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Jun 12, 2023
Considering The Future Self
Don’t Just Spend Your Time—Invest It | The Wall Street Journal
Dec 22, 2022
Considering The Future Self
Don’t Just Spend Your Time—Invest It | The Wall Street Journal
Dec 22, 2022
Considering The Future Self

By Joe Pinsker

Time, like money, can be allocated to build wealth, meaning and happiness in the years to come.

Read more…

Dec 22, 2022
Considering The Future Self
How thinking about 'future you' can build a happier life | BBC
Feb 2, 2022
Considering The Future Self
How thinking about 'future you' can build a happier life | BBC
Feb 2, 2022
Considering The Future Self

By David Robson

We should think more about whom we'll be in the future – because doing so has profound consequences for our health, happiness and financial security.

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Feb 2, 2022
Considering The Future Self
Why having too much free time can be as bad for you as having too little | The Washington Post
Sep 21, 2021
Considering The Future Self
Why having too much free time can be as bad for you as having too little | The Washington Post
Sep 21, 2021
Considering The Future Self

By Angela Haupt

Have you ever had one of those days — that turned into weeks — when you had approximately 645 things to do and not a single minute for leisure time?

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Sep 21, 2021
Considering The Future Self
Too Much Free Time Isn’t Actually Bad For You | Vice
Sep 16, 2021
Considering The Future Self
Too Much Free Time Isn’t Actually Bad For You | Vice
Sep 16, 2021
Considering The Future Self

By Shayla Love

How we use and think about our leisure matters more than the number of hours.

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Sep 16, 2021
Considering The Future Self
Plan Your Life Again, but Keep It Simple | The New York Times
May 4, 2021
Considering The Future Self
Plan Your Life Again, but Keep It Simple | The New York Times
May 4, 2021
Considering The Future Self

By Kayleen Schaefer

Even as we are optimistic about re-emerging from this crisis, plotting the future can feel daunting or even downright impossible.

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May 4, 2021
Considering The Future Self
There's no 'giant national campaign' for COVID-19 vaccine education; experts say there's a better way | USA TODAY
Feb 15, 2021
Considering The Future Self
There's no 'giant national campaign' for COVID-19 vaccine education; experts say there's a better way | USA TODAY
Feb 15, 2021
Considering The Future Self

By Elizabeth Weise

If you've been waiting for a big national campaign telling you COVID-19 vaccines are safe and everybody should get them, don't hold your breath. Until the supply is plentiful, the federal effort is largely focused on minority communities hesitant about the immunizations.

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Feb 15, 2021
Considering The Future Self
How Elvis Got Americans to Accept the Polio Vaccine | Scientific American
Jan 18, 2021
Considering The Future Self
How Elvis Got Americans to Accept the Polio Vaccine | Scientific American
Jan 18, 2021
Considering The Future Self

By Hal Hershfield, Ilana Brody

Campaigns to change behavior thrive on three factors: social influence, social norms and vivid examples.

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Jan 18, 2021
Considering The Future Self
The Year We Lost | The Atlantic
Dec 15, 2020
Considering The Future Self
The Year We Lost | The Atlantic
Dec 15, 2020
Considering The Future Self

Story by Joe Pinsker

When we look back on 2020, will we see past all the things that didn’t happen?

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Dec 15, 2020
Considering The Future Self
The future of money: After the pandemic, will you have your own 'financial pandemic'? | BNN Bloomberg
Dec 14, 2020
Considering The Future Self
The future of money: After the pandemic, will you have your own 'financial pandemic'? | BNN Bloomberg
Dec 14, 2020
Considering The Future Self

By Melissa Leong

The global pandemic changed everything in 2020. Now it is going to change everything forever. This is part of "The Future of" series, in which BNN Bloomberg looks at what is next for our transformed economy and daily lives. Read more…

Dec 14, 2020
Considering The Future Self
In Their 20s and Saving for Retirement: How It Started, How It’s Going | The New York Times
Nov 30, 2020
Considering The Future Self
In Their 20s and Saving for Retirement: How It Started, How It’s Going | The New York Times
Nov 30, 2020
Considering The Future Self

By Elizabeth Harris

Three savers learned some important lessons early on.

When Dray Farley was 15, he watched a video his favorite gamer had posted on YouTube. But it wasn’t about Call of Duty.

“It was how to get rich in 22 years, and the general math and concept of compound interest, the snowball effect, and how eventually your gains are making gains,” Mr. Farley said. “And that’s what first got me thinking about retirement accounts.” Read more…

Nov 30, 2020
Considering The Future Self
Should You Immerse Yourself in Bad News These Days or Ignore It Completely? | Scientific American
May 5, 2020
Considering The Future Self
Should You Immerse Yourself in Bad News These Days or Ignore It Completely? | Scientific American
May 5, 2020
Considering The Future Self

By Hal Hershfield

How can we possibly grapple with the onslaught of information about virus spread, stock market nosedives, canceled plans and uncertainty about the future? Some people wallow in the fear, anxiety and sadness, checking news sites and social media constantly. Others try to suppress it all and ignore the outside world (I’m guessing that Instagram has never seen so much traffic). Read more…

May 5, 2020
Considering The Future Self
Time Is Meaningless Now | Vice
Apr 10, 2020
Considering The Future Self
Time Is Meaningless Now | Vice
Apr 10, 2020
Considering The Future Self

By Shayla Love

In 1962, a French geologist, Michel Siffre, descended into a cave more than 400 feet below ground and stayed there for two months. He left his watch, and any other indicators of time, at the surface to experience what life was like "beyond time." Read more…

Apr 10, 2020
Considering The Future Self
The Key To Saving More For Retirement: Using Your Imagination | Forbes
Apr 6, 2020
Considering The Future Self
The Key To Saving More For Retirement: Using Your Imagination | Forbes
Apr 6, 2020
Considering The Future Self

By Tim Maurer

The coronavirus is dominating our attention so pervasively in the present moment that the notion of retirement seems even more distant for savers. That’s understandable—natural, even. But it’s precisely our fixation on the present that causes us to struggle to follow through on our intentions to secure our future. Let me show you why. Read more…

Apr 6, 2020
Considering The Future Self
Op-Ed: A lesson from FaceApp: Learning to relate to the older person we will become | Los Angeles Times
Jul 29, 2019
Considering The Future Self
Op-Ed: A lesson from FaceApp: Learning to relate to the older person we will become | Los Angeles Times
Jul 29, 2019
Considering The Future Self

By Hal E. Hershfield

When given the choice, about 85% of people say they would not want to know about some negative event far in the future. Yet in recent days more than 150 million people around the globe have downloaded FaceApp, which allows users to see how they might age in real life — wrinkles and all. Read more…

Jul 29, 2019
Considering The Future Self
How Much Leisure Time Do the Happiest People Have? | The Atlantic
Feb 21, 2019
Considering The Future Self
How Much Leisure Time Do the Happiest People Have? | The Atlantic
Feb 21, 2019
Considering The Future Self

By Joe Pinsker

Up and down the economic ladder, many Americans who work—and especially those raising kids—are pressed for time, wishing they had more of it to devote to leisure activities (or even just sleeping). At the same time, research has indicated that people who are busy tend to be happier than those who are idle, whether their busyness is purposeful or not.

Read more…

Feb 21, 2019
Considering The Future Self
Why It’s So Hard to Put ‘Future You’ Ahead of ‘Present You’ | The New York Times
Sep 18, 2018
Considering The Future Self
Why It’s So Hard to Put ‘Future You’ Ahead of ‘Present You’ | The New York Times
Sep 18, 2018
Considering The Future Self

By Tim Herrera

I have this awful, corny joke I trot out whenever I’m glossing over details for future plans with friends or brushing off something I don’t want to deal with: “That’s Future Tim’s problem. Let that chump deal with it.” Poor, poor Future Tim. Constantly set up for failure by that jerk Past Tim. As Present Tim — who, ahem, is always on top of things — I can say that Past Tim isn’t bad. He’s just wired that way. And I’m sure as you’re reading this, a few instances come to mind of when Past You has, quite inconsiderably, set up Future You for failure. Why do we do this to ourselves? What makes us act against our own self-interest, even when we are acutely aware we’re doing so? Read more…

Sep 18, 2018
Considering The Future Self
The Cognitive Biases Tricking Your Brain | The Atlantic
Sep 1, 2018
Considering The Future Self
The Cognitive Biases Tricking Your Brain | The Atlantic
Sep 1, 2018
Considering The Future Self

Story by Ben Yagoda

Science suggests we’re hardwired to delude ourselves. Can we do anything about it?

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Sep 1, 2018
Considering The Future Self
It’s Time to A/B Test Your Financial Life | The Wall Street Journal
Jun 10, 2018
Considering The Future Self
It’s Time to A/B Test Your Financial Life | The Wall Street Journal
Jun 10, 2018
Considering The Future Self

By Shlomo Benartzi

People often don’t know their true preferences. Trying them out could save you a lot of money.

Read more…

Jun 10, 2018
Considering The Future Self
Would You Rather Have $1 Million or $5,000 Monthly in Retirement? | The Wall Street Journal
Mar 27, 2017
Considering The Future Self
Would You Rather Have $1 Million or $5,000 Monthly in Retirement? | The Wall Street Journal
Mar 27, 2017
Considering The Future Self

By Shlomo Benartzi and Hal E. Hershfield

The answer will tell you whether you suffer an ‘illusion of poverty’ or an ‘illusion of wealth.’

Read more…

Mar 27, 2017
Considering The Future Self
What Should You Choose: Time or Money? | The New York Times
Sep 1, 2016
Considering The Future Self
What Should You Choose: Time or Money? | The New York Times
Sep 1, 2016
Considering The Future Self

By Hal E. Hershfield and Cassie Mogilner Holmes

Given the choice between more time or more money, which would you pick? For a beach vacation, you might pay more for a direct flight to gain a couple of extra hours getting sand between your toes. On the other hand, you might take a better-paying job that requires late nights at the office.

Read more…

Sep 1, 2016
Considering The Future Self
Should you want more money or more time? (Hint: There's a right answer) | Chicago Tribune
Sep 1, 2016
Considering The Future Self
Should you want more money or more time? (Hint: There's a right answer) | Chicago Tribune
Sep 1, 2016
Considering The Future Self

By Minda Zetlin

We face this kind of decision all the time. Pitch one more customer, or go home to an early dinner with the family? Attend a career-boosting workshop or take a badly needed vacation? Apply for that high-paying job that will have you working long hours so you can pay for your children's education, or skip it for now so you can spend more time with them?

Read more…

Sep 1, 2016
Considering The Future Self
4 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Save and Invest Like a Millionaire | Money
Aug 19, 2016
Considering The Future Self
4 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Save and Invest Like a Millionaire | Money
Aug 19, 2016
Considering The Future Self

By Carolyn Bigda, Daniel Bortz, Elaine Pofeldt and Penelope Wang

In the first three installments of the series “How to Reach $1 Million,” you learned key investing strategies for millionaires-in-the making, tips for boosting your salary, and strategic ways to lower your taxes. Part Four below offers smart ideas to inspire, cajole, or even trick yourself to save and invest more efficiently.

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Aug 19, 2016
Considering The Future Self
Why time-starved people are happier | Washington Post
Jun 1, 2016
Considering The Future Self
Why time-starved people are happier | Washington Post
Jun 1, 2016
Considering The Future Self

By Christopher Ingraham

Americans who want more time in their lives are happier than those who want more money, according to new research published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Read more…

Jun 1, 2016
Considering The Future Self

CONTACT
Email: hal.hershfield@anderson.ucla.edu
Academic site: Hal Hershfield UCLA

 
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