Seven experiments (total N = 3,509) and a large field data set (N = 1,820,671) demonstrate that time periods of equal duration are not always perceived as equivalent. The authors find that periods feel longer when they span more time categories (e.g., hour, month). For example, periods like 1:45 p.m.–3:15 p.m. and March 31–April 6 (boundary-expanded) feel longer than, say, 1:15 p.m.–2:45 p.m. and April 2–April 8 (boundary-compressed). Reflecting this, participants anticipated completing more work during boundary-expanded periods than during equivalent boundary-compressed periods. This effect appears to result from the salience and placement of time boundaries. Consequently, participants preferred scheduling pleasant activities for boundary-expanded periods and unpleasant activities for boundary-compressed periods. Moreover, participants were willing to pay more to avoid—and required more money to endure—a long wait when that wait was presented as boundary-expanded. Finally, data from more than 1.8 million rideshare trips suggest that consumers are more likely to choose independent rides (e.g., UberX) when they are boundary-compressed when the alternative shared option (e.g., UberPool) is boundary-expanded. Together, our studies reveal that time periods feel longer when they span more boundaries and that this phenomenon shapes consumers’ scheduling and purchasing decisions.
AlterAdam L.HershfieldHal E. (2014), “People Search for Meaning When They Approach a New Decade in Chronological Age,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111 (48), 17066–70.
4.
AyersJohn W.AlthouseBenjamin M.JohnsonMorganCohenJoanna E. (2014), “Circaseptan (Weekly) Rhythms in Smoking Cessation Considerations,” JAMA Internal Medicine, 174 (1), 146–48.
5.
BarsalouLawrence W. (1982), “Context-Independent and Context-Dependent Information in Concepts,” Memory & Cognition, 10 (1), 82–93.
6.
BilginBalerLeBoeufRobyn A. (2010), “Looming Losses in Future Time Perception,” Journal of Marketing Research, 47 (3), 520–30.
7.
BizerGeorge Y.SchindlerRobert M. (2005), “Direct Evidence of Ending-Digit Drop-Off in Price Information Processing,” Psychology & Marketing, 22 (10), 771–83.
8.
CantorNancyMischelWalter (1979), “Prototypes in Person Perception,” in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Chap. 12. New York: Academic Press, 3–52.
Droit-VoletSylvieGilSandrine (2009), “The Time–Emotion Paradox,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364 (1525), 1943–53.
11.
EiserJ. RichardStroebeWolfgang (1972), Categorization and Social Judgment. New York: Academic Press.
12.
EversEllen R.K.ImasAlexKangChristy (2021), “On the Role of Similarity in Mental Accounting and Hedonic Editing,” Psychological Review, DOI: 10.1037/rev0000325.
13.
GardnerWilliamMulveyEdward P.ShawEsther C. (1995), “Regression Analyses of Counts and Rates: Poisson, Overdispersed Poisson, and Negative Binomial Models,” Psychological Bulletin, 118 (3), 392–404.
14.
GibsonJames JeromeCarmichaelLeonard (1966), The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems, Vol. 2, No. 1. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
GraesserArthur C.WollStanley B.KowalskiDaniel J.SmithDonald A. (1980), “Memory for Typical and Atypical Actions in Scripted Activities,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 6 (5), 503–15.
17.
GregoryRichard Langton (1970), The Intelligent Eye. New York: McGraw-Hill Books.
IrmakCaglarNaylorRebeccaBeardenWilliam (2010), “The Out-of-Region Bias: Distance Estimations Based on Geographic Category Membership,” Marketing Letters, 22 (2), 181–96.
20.
KahnemanDanielMillerDale T. (1986), “Norm Theory: Comparing Reality to Its Alternatives,” Psychological Review, 93 (2), 136–53.
21.
KruegerJoachimClementRussell W. (1994), “Memory-Based Judgments About Multiple Categories: A Revision and Extension of Tajfel's Accentuation Theory,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67 (1), 35–47.
22.
LeamerEdward E. (1983), “Let's Take the Con out of Econometrics,” The American Economic Review, 73 (1), 31–43.
23.
LeeLeonardFrederickShaneArielyDan (2006), “Try It, You’ll Like It: The Influence of Expectation, Consumption, and Revelation on Preferences for Beer,” Psychological Science, 17 (12), 1054–58.
24.
LocksleyAnneOrtizVilmaHepburnChristine (1980), “Social Categorization and Discriminatory Behavior: Extinguishing the Minimal Intergroup Discrimination Effect,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39 (5), 773–83.
25.
LoftusElizabeth F.PalmerJohn C. (1974), “Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction: An Example of the Interaction between Language and Memory,” Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 13 (5), 585–89.
26.
MakiRuth H. (1982), “Why Do Categorization Effects Occur in Comparative Judgment Tasks?” Memory & Cognition, 10 (3), 252–64.
27.
ManningKenneth C.SprottDavid E. (2009), “Price Endings, Left-Digit Effects, and Choice,” Journal of Consumer Research, 36 (2), 328–35.
28.
MarkmanEllen M.HutchinsonJean E. (1984), “Children's Sensitivity to Constraints on Word Meaning: Taxonomic Versus Thematic Relations,” Cognitive Psychology, 16 (1), 1–27.
29.
MedinDouglas L.SchafferMarguerite M. (1978), “Context Theory of Classification Learning,” Psychological Review, 85 (3), 207–38.
30.
MedinDouglas L.SmithEdward E. (1981), “Strategies and Classification Learning,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 7 (4), 241–53.
31.
MervisCarolyn B.RoschEleanor (1981), “Categorization of Natural Objects,” Annual Review of Psychology, 32 (1), 89–115.
32.
PandelaereMarioBriersBarbaraLembregtsChristophe (2011), “How to Make a 29% Increase Look Bigger: The Unit Effect in Option Comparisons,” Journal of Consumer Research, 38 (2), 308–22.
33.
PietersRikWedelMichel (2004), “Attention Capture and Transfer in Advertising: Brand, Pictorial, and Text-Size Effects,” Journal of Marketing, 68 (2), 36–50.
34.
RoschEleanor (1999), “Principles of Categorization,” Concepts: Core Readings, 189, 312–22.
35.
RoschEleanorMervisCarolyn B. (1975), “Family Resemblances: Studies in the Internal Structure of Categories,” Cognitive Psychology, 7 (4), 573–605.
36.
RyanWilliamEversEllen R.K.MooreDon A. (2021), “Poisson Regressions: A Little Fishy,” Collabra: Psychology, 7 (1), 27242.
37.
SimonsohnUriSimmonsJoseph P.NelsonLeif D. (2020), “Specification Curve Analysis,” Nature Human Behavior, 4 (11), 1208–14.
38.
SloutskyVladimir M. (2003), “The Role of Similarity in the Development of Categorization,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7 (6), 246–51.
39.
SokolovaTatianaSeenivasanSatheeshThomasManoj (2020), “The Left-Digit Bias: When and Why Are Consumers Penny Wise and Pound Foolish?” Journal of Marketing Research, 57 (4), 771–88.
Strulov-ShlainAvner S. (2021), “More Than a Penny’s Worth: Left-Digit Bias and Firm Pricing,” Chicago Booth Research Paper No. 19-22.
43.
ThomasEwarta C.BrownIrvin (1974), “Time Perception and the Filled-Duration Illusion,” Perception & Psychophysics, 16 (3), 449–58.
44.
ThomasManojMorwitzVicki (2005), “Penny Wise and Pound Foolish: The Left-Digit Effect in Price Cognition,” Journal of Consumer Research, 32 (1), 54–64.
45.
ThomsenDorthe (2009), “There Is More to Life Stories Than Memories,” Memory, 17 (4), 445–57.
46.
ToniettoGabriela N.MalkocSelin A.NowlisStephen M. (2019), “When an Hour Feels Shorter: Future Boundary Tasks Alter Consumption by Contracting Time,” Journal of Consumer Research, 45 (5), 1085–102.
47.
ToniettoGabriela N.VanEppsEric M.MalkocSelin A.MaglioSam J. (2021), “Time Will Fly During Future Fun (But Drag Until Then),” Journal of Consumer Psychology, forthcoming, DOI: 10.1002/jcpy.1247.
48.
TuYanpingSomanDilip (2014), “The Categorization of Time and Its Impact on Task Initiation,”Journal of Consumer Research, 41 (3), 810–22.
49.
TverskyAmos (1977), “Features of Similarity,” Psychological Review, 84 (4), 327–52.
50.
TverskyBarbaraHemenwayKathleen (1984), “Objects, Parts, and Categories,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113 (2), 169–93.
51.
VergneJ.P.WryTyler (2014), “Categorizing Categorization Research: Review, Integration, and Future Directions,” Journal of Management Studies, 51 (1), 56–94.
52.
WinawerJonathanWitthoftNathanFrankMichael C.WuLisaWadeAlex R.BoroditskyLera (2007), “Russian Blues Reveal Effects of Language on Color Discrimination,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104 (19), 7780–85.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
