Part of the challenge young people face when preparing for lifelong financial security is visualizing the far-off future. Age-progression technology has been shown to motivate young people to save for retirement. The current study applied age progression for motivating socioeconomically diverse community college students as part of a college planning course. We recruited 106 students enrolled in a mandatory "Transitioning to College" course and randomly assigned them to view age-progressed or same-aged digital avatars. Compared to controls, age-progressed participants gave more correct answers and exhibited higher confidence (i.e., fewer "don't know" responses) on a financial literacy test. Confidence mediated the effect of age progression on correct responses, but not the other way around, pointing to financial confidence as a precursor to effective financial education. Students also reported interest in attending more long-term financial planning workshops (e.g., investing and retirement) available through their college. No differences were observed in financial planning for the near term (e.g., student aid and credit cards). The current study demonstrates the viability of age progression as a practical, inexpensive, and scalable intervention. Findings also illustrate the significance of this intervention for reducing pervasive socioeconomic and age disparities in financial knowledge and enhancing long-term financial prospects across future generations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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未来就在眼前：随着年龄增长的形象激励社区学院的学生为自己的财务未来做好准备。


年轻人在为终身财务保障做准备时面临的部分挑战是想象遥远的未来。年龄增长技术已被证明可以激励年轻人为退休储蓄。目前的研究应用年龄进展来激励社会经济多元化的社区学院学生，作为大学规划课程的一部分。我们招募了 106 名参加“大学过渡”必修课程的学生，并随机分配他们查看随年龄增长或同龄的数字化身。与对照组相比，年龄增长的参与者在金融知识测试中给出了更正确的答案，并表现出更高的信心（即“不知道”的回答更少）。信心调节了年龄进展对正确反应的影响，但反之则不然，这表明财务信心是有效财务教育的先导。学生们还表示有兴趣参加大学提供的更多长期财务规划研讨会（例如投资和退休）。近期财务规划（例如学生援助和信用卡）没有观察到差异。目前的研究证明了年龄进展作为一种实用、廉价且可扩展的干预措施的可行性。研究结果还说明了这种干预措施对于减少金融知识方面普遍存在的社会经济和年龄差距以及增强子孙后代的长期金融前景的重要性。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。