Encouraging people to do things with VR

I read an article a few years ago about a study to see if people contribute more to their pension fund if they have seen a future representation of themselves. Not surprisingly they do. I have been bouncing the idea around in my head, so I decided to look up the study. You can read it here.

They used some clever software to produce a 3D model of a person's head which they then aged. The participant was then given a VR headset inside which they could see their older self. They could interact to a limited extent with themselves, so it was better than just a photo of 'you old'.

The experiments were very well run, but basically the outcome was that people can relate to their older self if they see the image and pension contributions go up.

I think this idea is generally fascinating, beyond pension contribution. For example encouraging people to adopt healthy lifestyles is very difficult. Often the pull of pleasure now far outweighs some notion of protecting your future self. If people could see themselves sick, fat and maybe with a few limbs missing they might rethink their choices.

Radical stuff, but really no more than letting people make their own minds up based on what they can see will happen.

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