Modeling temporal self-continuity and its association with temporal discounting

Self-continuity (i.e., people's sense of connectedness with their past and future selves) declines with increasing distance from the present moment. Questions remain about the specific patterns of such temporal declines and about potential associations between self-continuity and temporal discounting (i.e., the tendency to devalue delayed outcomes). In response, the present research assessed both past and future self-continuity as well as temporal discounting across multiple time intervals in two U.S. adult lifespan samples (n = 86/461). Analyses examined the associations between self-continuity and temporal discounting and fitted mathematical models from the temporal discounting literature (exponential/hyperbolic/q-exponential) to self-continuity. The q-exponential model provided the best fit for both self-continuity and temporal discounting data. However, associations between temporal discounting and past or future self-continuity were only found at single intervals but not for average levels or slope parameters. Theoretical implications, methodological limitations, and future directions are discussed.