Can VR help you achieve your goals?
A Max Planck researcher has developed VR and smartphone tools that let you "meet" your future self. The science behind it is more powerful than it sounds.
A German criminologist and psychologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law developed an experiment that utilizes virtual reality (VR) to help people focus on long-term goals by visualizing their future selves. Participants in the study entered a virtual room, where they encountered a digitally aged version of themselves - 10 years older and slightly grayer.
This interaction made future states more concrete in their minds, which led to increased motivation to work towards their goals. The study found that the VR version was more effective than a smartphone-based version in helping individuals achieve their objectives, such as better health or academic performance. This technique, known as episodic future thinking or mental time travel, can be applied through simple self-reflection questions, such as imagining how one's future self would view a given decision.
While more advanced AI avatars may eventually serve as personalized future coaches, the original and low-cost solution involves using a piece of paper and a pen to ponder where one wants to be in ten years and what advice their future self would give.
Written by urgent.news from Deutsche Welle Science's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
