Time and class: How socioeconomic status shapes conceptions of the future self

People generally care about their future. However, how vividly they imagine it, and how much they like and value it, may vary across socioeconomic status (SES). If lower-SES individuals believe their future to resemble their present, including the greater uncertainties and stressors of a lower-SES environment, then they may focus less on their future self, coming to view it less vividly, as less likable, and less valuable, amongst other qualities. We found support for these hypotheses across pilot data, two observational studies (one pre-registered), and a pre-registered experimental manipulation of SES. These results add to the growing literature on SES’s psychological consequences by suggesting that SES affects people’s conceptions of not only their present self, but also their future self.