Being present : expanding consumers' perceptions of time through momentary temporal focus
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- One of the most striking features of our modern society is the high degree to which time is valued: For many Americans, time has become the most precious consumer commodity and the ultimate scarcity. Indeed, prior research has documented that those who consume, work, and live in our society are feeling increasingly starved for time and that this sense of time famine can take a toll on health and well-being. So, how can we combat this time shortage? Approaching this problem from a psychological perspective, this dissertation illustrates that altering people's perceptions of their temporal resources may be one possible remedy for these feeling of time starvation. Although increasing the objective amount of time that people possess has inherent limitations (there are, after all, only 24 hours in a day), this dissertation provides evidence that this time shortage problem has an important perceptual component and that it is possible to meaningfully expand people's subjective sense of time availability. Across a series of laboratory experiments, this dissertation reveals that one's momentary temporal focus (i.e., the extent to which one is currently focused on the past, the present, and the future) influences perceptions of time: A stronger focus on the present expands people's ensuing perceptions of current time availability, making them feel more time affluent or "rich" in time. Exploring this time expansion effect across diverse dependent variables and various methods of construct activation (including direct cognitive means [e.g., priming tasks and deep thinking exercises], indirect behavioral means [e.g., slow controlled breathing], and indirect emotional means [e.g., the experience of awe]), this work also demonstrates the robustness of the effect, identifies a specific instance when the effect does not occur, reveals the mechanisms underlying the effect, and provides a variety of insights into the psychology of time. Moreover, the results of these experiments also demonstrate that this perceptual expansion of time alters people's decision making, preferences, cognitive abilities, behavioral tendencies, and psychological well-being. Thus, this dissertation underscores that shifting people's perceptions of time availability can have significant downstream consequences for both consumers and managers.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2013 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Rudd, Melanie |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Graduate School of Business. |
| Primary advisor | Aaker, Jennifer Lynn |
| Thesis advisor | Aaker, Jennifer Lynn |
| Thesis advisor | Shiv, Baba, 1960- |
| Thesis advisor | Vohs, Kathleen D |
| Advisor | Shiv, Baba, 1960- |
| Advisor | Vohs, Kathleen D |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Melanie Rudd. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Graduate School of Business. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2013. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2013 by Melanie Rose Rudd
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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