Abstract

How an individual construes one's future influences everyday decisions, such as savings and impulsive purchasing. Drawing on the idea of future self-continuity, which explains perceived connectedness between the current and future self, this study demonstrated whether media images with various age ranges influence a sense of connectedness with one's future self as well as impatience. Furthermore, the study measured whether these relationships are moderated by the positivity of older adults and an individual's dispositional optimism in general. Results showed that watching various images of people with a wide range of age (from the 20s to 90s) in social media increases young adults' (the 20s) self-continuity and decreases their intention of impatient consumption. This effect is also moderated by the degree to which the participants perceive aging positively, prompted by media exposure. The study suggests that displaying people with broad age ranges in media actually changes young adults' future self-continuity, leading them to show more patience in an intertemporal setting.