title: Turning I into me: Imagining your future self.
abstract: A widely endorsed belief is that perceivers imagine their present selves using a different representational format than imagining their future selves (i.e., near future=first-person; distant future=third-person). But is this really the case? Responding to the paucity of work on this topic, here we considered how temporal distance influences the extent to which individuals direct their attention outward or inward during a brief imaginary episode. Using a non-verbal measure of visual perspective taking (i.e., letter-drawing task) our results confirmed the hypothesized relation between temporal distance and conceptions of the self. Whereas simulations of an event in the near future were dominated by a first-person representation of the self, this switched to a third-person depiction when the event was located in the distant future. Critically, this switch in vantage point was restricted to self-related simulations. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are considered.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. Electronic address: c.n.macrae@abdn.ac.uk.
authors.forename: C Neil
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Macrae
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, USA.
authors.forename: Jason P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.
authors.forename: Kirsten A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Tait
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.
authors.forename: Diana L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: McNamara
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.
authors.forename: Marius
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Golubickis
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.
authors.forename: Pavlos P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Topalidis
authors.affiliation: Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: Brittany M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Christian
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D004532:Ego; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Mental imagery; Prospection; Self; Self-awareness; Temporal construal; Visual perspective