An Issue of Public Affairs Management: The Effect of Time Slack and Need for Cognition on Prediction of Task Completion

Abstract

This study examined whether time slack would influence the prediction of task completion time and whether need for cognition would influence prediction accuracy if time scenarios were manipulated. With a laboratory experiment in which 140 subjects were involved, two major results were obtained: (1) People expected time slack to be greater in the future than in the present, but the operation of time slack scenarios did not reduce the participants' optimism about when their tasks would be completed. Time constraint scenarios enhanced their prediction optimism. (2) Individual differences in need of cognition would influence the effects of operation of time scenarios.