FutureU
FutureU is a novel and scalable behavioral intervention to increase future-orientation in offenders by connecting them to their future self. The research program, which was started with the (Dutch) Probation Service as a partner and stakeholder, is premised on the well-established notion that delinquents often live like there is no tomorrow because that tomorrow is not cognitively present in their minds. The intervention uses virtual reality and a smartphone application to present late adolescents / young adults with a virtual version of their future self and allows them to interact with this future self to make them more aware of the future and more inclined to take the long-term consequences of their behavior into account. FutureU, which is ERC-funded (ERC Consolidator Grant 772911), aligns with the short-term mindsets and crime project in the sense that it assumes that disregard for the future underlies the choice for crime and that future-orientation is in fact a malleable characteristic rather than a stable disposition of people.
Selected Publications
Mertens, E., Thielmann, I., Nocentini, A., Siezenga, A., & Van Gelder, J.-L. (in press). Putting situational affordances in an intervention context: How the interaction between personality and intervention situations can help us explain differential intervention responses. PLOS ONE.
Ganschow, B., Zebel, S., van Gelder, J.-L., & Cornet, L. J. M. (2024). Feeling connected but dissimilar to one’s future self reduces the intention-behavior gap. PLOS ONE, 19(7), e0305815. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0305815
Mertens, E. C. A., Siezenga, A., Van der Schalk, J., & Van Gelder, J.-L. (2024). A Novel Smartphone-Based Intervention Aimed at Increasing Future Orientation via the Future Self: a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of a Prototype Application. Prevention Science, 25(2), 392–405. doi:10.1007/s11121-023-01609-y
Siezenga, A., Mertens, E. C. A., & van Gelder, J.-L. (2023). A look under the hood: analyzing engagement and usage data of a smartphone-based intervention. BMC Digital Health, (1), 45. doi:10.1186/s44247-023-00048-7
Cornet, L., & Van Gelder, J.-L. (2023). Cognition, criminal conduct and virtual reality: understanding and reducing offending using simulated environments. In H. Swaab & G. Meynen (Eds.), Handbook of clinical neurology: brain and crime (pp. 207–216). San Diego: Elsevier.
Van Gelder, J.-L. (2023). Virtual reality for criminologists: A road map. Crime and Justice, 52, 1–49. doi:10.1086/726691
Mertens, E. C. A., Siezenga, A., Tettero, T., & van Gelder, J.-L. (2022). A future orientation intervention delivered through a smartphone application and virtual reality: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. BMC Psychology, 10, 315. doi:10.1186/s40359-022-01025-x
Van Gelder, J.-L., Cornet, L. J. M., Zwalua, N. P., Mertens, E. C. A., & van der Schalk, J. (2022). Interaction with the future self in virtual reality reduces self-defeating behavior in a sample of convicted offenders. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 2254. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-06305-5
Mertens, E. C. A., van der Schalk, J., Siezenga, A., & Van Gelder, J.-L. (2022). Stimulating a future-oriented mindset and goal attainment through a smartphone-based intervention: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Internet Interventions, 27, 100509. doi:10.1016/j.invent.2022.100509
Van Gelder, J.-L., Cornet, L. J. M., Zwalua, N. P., Mertens, E. C. A., & van der Schalk, J. (2022). Interaction with the future self in virtual reality reduces self-defeating behavior in a sample of convicted offenders. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 2254. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-06305-5
Cornet, L., & Van Gelder, J.-L. (2021). Virtual reality as a research method in criminology. In J. C. Barnes & D. R. Forde (Eds.), The encyclopedia of research methods in criminology and criminal justice (Vol. Vol. 2, pp. 893–900). Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell.
Ganschow, B., Cornet, L., Zebel, S., & Van Gelder, J.-L. (2021). Looking Back From the Future: Perspective Taking in Virtual Reality Increases Future Self-Continuity. Frontiers in Psychology, (12), 664687. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.664687
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