Marking Time Selective Use of Temporal Landmarks as Barriers Between Current and Future Selves

• Published in: Personality & social psychology bulletin Vol. 40; no. 1; pp. 44 - 56
• Main Authors: Peetz, Johanna, Wilson, Anne E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.01.2014; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Birthdays; Calendars; Female; Future; Holidays - psychology; Humans; Landmarks; Male; Middle Aged; Personality psychology; Psychological aspects; Random Allocation; Self Concept; Selfdirected learning; Selfenhancement; Studies; Time; Time Factors; Time Perception; Young Adult; possible selves; temporal selves; time; temporal landmarks; self-enhancement; self-protection
• ISSN: 0146-1672; 1552-7433; 1552-7433
• DOI: 10.1177/0146167213501559

Temporal landmarks such as birthdays and significant calendar dates structure our perception of time. People might highlight temporal landmarks spontaneously in an effort to regulate connections between temporal selves. Five studies demonstrated that landmarks are used spontaneously to induce psychological separation from undesirable temporal selves. Participants were more likely to think of events that fell in between the current and the future self if an imagined future self was negative than if it was positive (Studies 1a, 1b, and 2). Furthermore, when a self-enhancement mindset was activated, participants were more likely to call to mind intervening temporal landmarks to protect themselves from a negative future self than when this mindset was not activated (Study 3). Finally, when psychological separations between the current self and a negative future self were introduced through alternate means, participants no longer selectively used landmarks to separate themselves from this future self (Study 4).