Melanie Rudd

Awe Expands People’s Perception of Time, Alters Decision Making, and Enhances Well-Being

When do people feel as if they are rich in time? Not often, research and daily experience suggest. However, three experiments showed that participants who felt awe, relative to other emotions, felt they had more time available (Experiments 1 and 3) and were less impatient (Experiment 2). Participants who experienced awe also were more willing to volunteer their time to help other people (Experiment 2), more strongly preferred experiences over material products (Experiment 3), and experienced greater life satisfaction (Experiment 3). Mediation analyses revealed that these changes in decision making and well-being were due to awe’s ability to alter the subjective experience of time. Experiences of awe bring people into the present moment, and being in the present moment underlies awe’s capacity to adjust time perception, influence decisions, and make life feel more satisfying than it would otherwise.

If money does not make you happy, consider time ☆

Abstract Although a substantial amount of research has examined the link between money and happiness, far less has examined the link between time and happiness. This paper argues, however, that time plays a critical role in understanding happiness, and it complements the money-spending happiness principles in Dunn, Gilbert, and Wilson (2011) by offering five time-spending happiness principles: 1) spend time with the right people; 2) spend time on the right activities; 3) enjoy the experience without spending the time; 4) expand your time; and 5) be aware that happiness changes over time.

If Money Doesn't Make You Happy, Consider Time

Although a substantial amount of research has examined the link between money and happiness, far less has examined the link between time and happiness. This paper argues, however, that time plays a critical role in understanding happiness, and it complements the money-spending happiness principles in Dunn, Gilbert, and Wilson (2010) by offering five time-spending happiness principles: 1) spend time with the right people; 2) spend time on the right activities; 3) enjoy the experience without spending the time; 4) expand your time; and 5) be aware that happiness changes over time.

Getting the Most Out of Giving: Pursuing Concretely-Framed Prosocial Goals Maximizes Happiness

Across six field and laboratory experiments, participants given a concretely-framed prosocial goal (e.g., making someone smile, increasing recycling) felt happier after performing a goal-directed act of kindness than did those who were assigned a functionally similar, but more abstractly-framed, prosocial goal (e.g., making someone happy, saving the environment). This effect was driven by differences in the size of the gap between participants’ expectations and reality. Compared to those assigned to pursue an abstractly-framed prosocial goal, those assigned to pursue a concretely-framed goal perceived that the actual outcome of their goal-directed efforts more accurately matched their expectations, causing them to experience a greater boost in personal happiness. Further, participants were unable to predict this effect, believing that pursuing abstractly-framed prosocial goals would have either an equal or greater positive impact on their own happiness.

Feeling short on time: trends, consequences, and possible remedies

This review highlights recent research on time shortage, which has been broadly classified into three streams. Building upon decades of time use survey and diary findings, the trends and demographics stream document the latest longitudinal changes in perceptions of time shortage (including a recent decline) and provides an increasingly clear picture of who is hardest hit by time shortage. Meanwhile, the consequences stream has underscored that although time shortage has myriad negative outcomes, busyness and time pressure are not all bad news. Last, the nascent remedies stream has largely sought to ameliorate time shortage not by altering peoples actual, objective temporal resources, but instead by offering safeguards against or shifting peoples perceptions of time shortage.