A joint account with my future self: Self‐continuity facilitates adjustment of present spending to future income changes
研究发现消费者会因未来收入减少而调整当前支出，但较少因未来收入增加而调整，原因是自我连续性低；增强自我连续性可促使消费者将现在与未来收入合并到一个心理账户，从而增加当前支出。
Abstract Is consumers' present spending influenced by future changes in their income? From an economic perspective, consumers should reduce present spending when anticipating a future income decrease and boost spending when anticipating a future income increase to maximize their welfare. We find that although consumers tend to adjust their spending to a future income decrease, they are less likely to do so to a future income increase. We show that this is, in part, due to a low sense of self‐continuity, a tendency to view the future self whose income increases as if it were a different person and, as a result, to categorize present and future income into two separate mental accounts. Enhancing self‐continuity leads consumers to combine present and future income in a single mental account, and thereby facilitates adjustment of present spending to a future income increase. Whereas prior work linked high self‐continuity to reduced present spending, we identify a context in which high self‐continuity can boost present spending. We discuss the implications of these findings for consumer well‐being.