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In an interview, Hershfield spoke about how to make “future you” a part of your present, the need to forgive your past missteps and why you might want to consider writing letters to yourself.

One of its key findings is that when people think about their future selves, their brain activity mirrors the type of activity that occurs when they think about complete strangers. The result is “Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today,” which will be published June 6. He examined how people relate to their future selves, and how those relationships influence the decisions we people make, or don’t make, in the present. Hershfield, who earned his doctorate in psychology from Stanford University, approached the research not as an economist but as a psychologist.

Hershfield, a professor of marketing and behavioral decision making at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, decided to investigate the retirement crisis - a “slow-moving catastrophe,” he calls it - in which people are living longer and saving less, leaving them without resources for retirement. Watching the Great Recession unfold, he began to wonder why it was so easy for people to take risks that they really shouldn’t. The seeds of Hal Hershfield’s new book were planted during the financial crisis that gripped the nation in 2008.
