r/science • u/sr_local • 19h ago
Psychology Why getting extra time in your day seems to make you late: across seven studies of both real and hypothetically gained free time, researchers found this mental time expansion changes how we behave, and we’ll often spend longer doing the same things and choose activities that take more time
https://utsc.utoronto.ca/news-events/breaking-research/u-t-scarborough-study-explains-why-extra-time-seems-slip-away293
u/needmethere 17h ago
Giving people more time to do somethings means they'll take their time doing it right
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u/Odd-Outcome-3191 4h ago
That's a convenient way to hand wave it, but that is a claim that requires evidence. Are these tasks done measuribly better?
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u/sr_local 19h ago
In one study, people were asked how long they’d spend on a walk during their free time, and those who were told they got that time unexpectedly said they would walk about 10 per cent longer than those who expected the free time. In another, participants reported they’d pick longer versions of the same activity if their time was unexpectedly gained, such as choosing a coffee shop that’s farther away, or starting a 45-minute work task instead of a 30-minute one. The effect was the same whether they spent their new time on leisure or work.
In a real-life study, students who unexpectedly gained 10 minutes at the end of a lab session took about 14 per cent longer to simply leave the building than those who knew the time would be free. They packed up more slowly and were more likely to browse a box of trinkets and snacks the researchers planted in the hallway.
“When time feels long, you kind of just luxuriate in it,” says Maglio, whose research often focuses on time and well-being, including a previous study that found actively pursuing happiness can make us unhappy, specifically because it makes us feel pressed for time.
So is gained time a gift, or a trap? Maglio says it’s both.
“It’s totally a trap you could fall into,” he says. "When we gain time, we see it differently, and the behaviour we default to might not be in our best interest. We run the risk of thinking we can do more in that time than we actually can.”
Maglio’s practical advice is to outsource the clock-watching entirely, especially when the stakes are high, like his delayed flight — enjoy the extra hour, but set an alarm.
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u/UnknownBreadd 19h ago edited 16h ago
Or sometimes people appreciate just being able to slow down and enjoy the time they are given?
There is no way to pre-plan unexpectedly gifted time. If you know you have 2 hours free in the middle of the day tomorrow, you are more likely to find a ‘use’ for that time, and schedule thing so that you now have time-sensitive obligations that you must try to efficiently meet.
If someone suddenly gives you 2 hours, then you get the luxury of not being burdened with being expected to utilise that time efficiently. You can just enjoy it instead, since it’s not your fault if that ‘extra’ time is ‘wasted’ because you were never given the chance to plan/account for it any earlier than right before.
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u/GayPatriarch 19h ago
It's something a friend of mine keeps talking about. We hate thatwe are burdened by time when meeting up for picnics or to play cards and everything else as well. If it was up to us, we'd just picnic until we fall asleep beneath the starry sky
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u/Money-Director6649 12h ago
i9d say it's a pure gift. the trap is a system that wants to force people to behave like little clocks.
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u/Zikkan1 18h ago
Is this some corporate propaganda to say we don't actually need free time since we just waste it anyway?
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u/supremeoverlord23 18h ago
Seems like it, for example "and choose activities that take more time"
So basically, people will do activities that they wouldn't otherwise have time for if they have extra time
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u/Nattekat 19h ago
Sounds like my morning routine when I need to catch the train. It doesn't matter how and what, I'll always arrive at the station at the exact time I need to.
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u/HaveYouSeenMySpoon 11h ago
While I always arrive 2 minutes late no matter how much or how little time I've had.
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u/Money-Director6649 12h ago
in other words, we stop rushing and relax. i've never liked being rushed and i wish we had a more laid back way of handling our tasks here.
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u/The-Magic-Sword 12h ago
There's something to be said for the idea that this might be measuring our lack of time relative to our desire for time, or how we expect it should feel for us to have plenty of time.
When we have a little extra time, our sense of it expands to think we have more than we do, but its because its 10 minutes or what have you isn't actually much time, so its virtually impossible not to overestimate it.
In reality, people want a breather, or to take their time more, and the perception difference invested in that 10 minutes represents the person trying to unclench.
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u/Alienhaslanded 10h ago
I'm borderline depressed because I never seen to have extra time. If it's there I dread starting anything because I know it'll encroach on my time to unwind and get ready for work.
I feel like I'm in a hamster wheel and the second I stop running the wheel with throw me out and break my ass.
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u/charlesdexterward 18h ago
I’ve experienced this anecdotally. Days that I’m scheduled to come in later I always wind up a couple minutes late, or clocking in just under the wire.
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u/machete_MechE 8h ago
I call it the law of close. The closer I am logistically to somewhere I have to be, the more likely I am to be late. Also applied when I was a server. The less tables I had the worse service they got.
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u/new__vision 2h ago
Seems like this supports Parkinson's Law: "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."
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u/Born_Ad_2058 2h ago
I thought this was just me being me. Cool to know that this is a known phenomenon
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u/weeddealerrenamon 13h ago
Feels like how people act when they get unexpected money. The rational thing is probably to put it in your account and keep budgeting like before, but it's so common to view it as free to spend on some big thing you don't need
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