Experiment 1b: Spending Time on
Others Versus the Self
To address the possibility that wasting time in Experiment 1a
diminished perceived time affluence because of the unpleas-
antness of counting the letter “e,” we compared the impact of
giving time with a more pleasant task in Experiment 1b:
spending time on oneself. Just as wasting time can signal that
one has abundant time, so can spending time indulging one-
self: “If I have enough time for ‘me’ time, I must have a lot of
time.” Mirroring our predictions in Experiment 1a, we pre-
dicted that spending time on other people would lead to greater
feelings of time affluence than spending time on oneself.
Additionally, we moved from the laboratory to the field by
encouraging participants to spend time on the people in their
lives, and we examined whether the impact of giving time
depended on the amount of time spent.