The Small BIG: Small Changes That Spark Big Influence by Steve J. Martin, Noah Goldstein, Robert Cialdini Page A

important to note that the “obligation to future self” message didn’t work for everyone. It turns out that people vary somewhat on how close they feel to their future selves. That is, the researchers found that those who felt little connection to their future selves were equally persuaded by both messages. Does this mean that when encouraging people to make financial plans for the future, you’ll have to somehow identify those people who have a particular closeness to their future selves and segment your message accordingly? Actually, no. Although this strategy didn’t work for everyone, the fact that the “obligation to future self” message fared no worse than the “standard future self-interest” message for those who didn’t feel connected to their future selves suggests that the former strategy is probably the best overall strategy to employ.
    The idea that big differences in retirement savings can result from the small act of asking people to consider their moral obligation to their future selves should appeal to financial advisers, HR managers, and policy makers alike. But is there an even more effective way to focus people’s attention on the importance of considering their future selves? It turns out there is—show them a photo of what they likely will look like in the future.
    In the studies, this time conducted by Hal Hershfield and six other researchers, participants first uploaded photographs of themselves a few weeks prior to the study. When the study started they were asked to indicate how much they would like to contribute to their retirement fund using an on-screen slider that controlled their level of contribution. Half entered their contributions on a screen that displayed the “current” photograph that the participant had uploaded. However, the other half saw an “age-progressed” photo portraying how they would likely look at the age of 70. This small change made a huge difference. Participants in the “future self” condition allocated an average of 6.2 percent of their earnings to their savings plan compared to an average of 4.4 percent by those in the “current self” condition. That’s more than a 40 percent difference in savings driven by participants’ contact with their future selves via the age-progressed photo.
    The implications are clear. Any communicator challenged with changing the behaviors of someone who won’t experience the benefit of those changes for a considerable time should not only point out the obligation they have to their future self but also illustrate what that future self will look like. For example, a doctor wishing to persuade a patient to give up smoking might run a photograph through a free age-progression app online to highlight how smoking can speed up aging.
    But if the opportunity of providing an image of another’s future self proves to be problematic, such as when seeking to persuade lots of people, additional research conducted by Daniel Bartels and Oleg Urminsky suggests an altogether easier approach. Their studies show that a communicator may be able to strengthen people’s sense of connection between their current selves and their future selves by simply reminding them that even though some aspects of their lives will change over time, each person’s core identity—who they really are as a person—will remain the same.
    As a result, rather than just employing guilt strategies or complex incentive schemes to reduce, let’s say, overeating or overspending, simply reminding people of their connectedness to their future selves may help them resist temptation and make more farsighted decisions.
    You might think that the tactical shifts recommended in this chapter seem too small in scope to work. But, at the very minimum, you owe it to your future self to try out the new tactics and to see if they work for you.

Chapter 16.
What SMALL BIG can reconnect people to their goals?
    I n 1919 Walt Disney was fired from his job drawing political