Suppose scientists use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look inside your head. If you start thinking about yourself, a part of your brain called the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) will light up like Times Square on New Year's Eve. When you think of your family members, this area will still light up, but now less intensely. And if you think of people who are distant to you in some way—for example, residents of Calcutta—the stimulation of the medial cortex will be even less.
The study suggests that we are less altruistic than we would like. But for you, this is probably no discovery. But what happens when you think about yourself in the future? Well, your mPFC will shine much less than when you thought of yourself in the present. The farther you look into the future, the weaker the reaction of that part of your brain will be—as if it's not about you, your child or your spouse, but about some Calcutta resident you've never seen before and will never see.
Prioritizing the here and now over the later and there—that's how evolution has programmed us. Primitive man could have fallen prey to a saber-toothed tiger or members of another tribe at any moment, so he didn't worry too much about what would happen in 10, 20 or 50 years. He lived for the present moment. Civilization has greatly increased life expectancy, but we still live as if there is no tomorrow. We should save for retirement, but how can we deny ourselves a vacation on the French Riviera? We should go to the gym and eat healthy to avoid excess weight and disease, but these threaten us in the near or distant future, and isn't it better to throw ourselves on the couch with junk food and turn on Netlix right now?
When our default setting is the present, we have a problem with delayed gratification. The issue is that we don't know how to give up immediate and momentary satisfaction for a reward that will provide a greater sense of fulfillment and happiness in the long run. In other words, we prefer a vacation on the French Riviera to a prosperous retirement and a hamburger and fries to a slim figure and health. The problem affects individuals, but also the entire human population. In order to enjoy unbridled consumption, we increase production, which entails overexploitation of natural resources and destruction of the planet. Another example: the rich Western world took too little interest in poverty and social inequality in developing countries, which led to the migration crisis. Humanity always has to pay a high price for holy peace and not leaving its comfort zone. If not now, then later. The punishment may be delayed in time, but it will not pass us by.