Economic evaluation of time

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In organizational behavior and psychology, Economic evaluation of time refers to perceiving of time in terms of money. (Other forms of evaluation of time are concerned with costs and benefits to the general community of changes in time-dependent activities.)

When a person evaluates their time in monetary terms, time is viewed as a scarce resource that should be used as efficiently as possible to maximize the perceived monetary gains.[1][2][3] Therefore, people who evaluate their time in terms of money are more likely to trade their time for money (i.e., workers provide their time to organizations in exchange for money)—as illustrated by research examining time and money trade-offs.[4]

Trading time for money is revealed through people's time use decisions. Across both mundane and major life decisions, people who evaluate their time in terms of money tend to spend their time in ways that give them more money at the expense of acquiring more time (e.g., driving to a cheaper, yet farther away gas station).[5] Research found that, across these decisions, choosing to get more money at the expense of getting more time is associated with lower subjective well-being.[4][5][6]

Furthermore, the activation of economic evaluation of time has primarily been studied in the organizational behavior research with hourly payment schedules and performance incentives, which are robust predictors of economic evaluation of time.[1][7] The psychological effects of receiving hourly payment and performance incentives promote the economic evaluations of time, and in turn lead employees to spend their time in ways that maximize personal success and economic gains, such as working more hours, socializing less with loved ones,[6] and volunteering less.[8][9]

Time and Money[edit]

Time is money[edit]

The idea that time can be evaluated in monetary terms was first introduced by Benjamin Franklin in his 1748 essay Advice to a Young Tradesman. His famous adage 'time is money', that appeared in this essay, was intended to convey that wasting time in frivolous pursuits results in lost money.[10] He believed that wasting time wasted money in two ways. First, by not earning money. Second, by spending money during non-working time.[10]

A great number of researchers argue that this aphorism is true in Western societies.[11] Jean-Claude Usunier noted that "the United States is quite emblematic of the 'time is money' cultures, where time is an economic good. Since time is a scarce resource, or at least perceived as such, people should try to reach its optimal allocation, between competing ways of using it."[12] Consistent with this line of thought, literature on economic evaluation of time views that people can treat time and money in similar ways (and they are tradeable) in certain contexts. Specifically, organizational practices, such as hourly payment schedules and exposure to the concept of 'money', are significant activators of economic evaluation of time.

Differences in time and money[edit]

However, a different line of research provides contrasting arguments by showing that people evaluate time and money very differently.[13][14][15] In particular, money has a readily exchangeable market where people can buy, sell, borrow, and save, which is impossible to do with time. A lost dollar has a potential to be earned back tomorrow, yet a lost minute cannot be recouped.

In a study done by LeClerc, Schmitt, and Dube, people were more risk-averse to uncertainties that involved losses of time compared to money (whereas, according to prospect theory, people are risk-seeking under decisions that involve losses of money).[13] For example, people were less likely to choose to wait 90 minutes over 60 minutes for sure than they were to choose the chance of losing $15 over $10 for sure. Okada and Hoch also found systematic differences in how people spent time versus money, and these differences in spending pattern were explained by the ambiguity in the value of time in contrast to money that was perceived as more fungible.[14] For example, people believed that they will have more time in the future than now (which leads to greater slack and procrastination), yet people did not overestimate the amount of money they will have in the future than now.

Time and money also differ in their connections to people's self-concepts. People perceive that their temporal expenditures, such as spending leisure time, are more reflective of their self-concept, as compared to their monetary expenditures.[16][17] For instance, Reed and his colleagues found that people view donations of time (e.g., volunteering) as higher in moral value and more self-expressive than monetary donations. Similarly, Carter and Gilovich found that people’s experiences are more critical to their personal narrative than material goods.[18] Therefore, although people do express aspects of their self-identity through purchasing of material goods as well,[19][20] expenditures of time may constitute people’s lives more strongly. Together, the fact that people can view their time in terms of money may not be true across all contexts.[21]

Factors that Promote Economic Evaluation of Time[edit]

Money[edit]

Research looking at the relationship between time and money found that activating the concept of money can heighten people's focus on the goal of maximizing economic gains. Thinking about their time in terms of money (economic evaluation of time), subsequently impacts people's decisions about time-use[22] and attitude toward others[23] (see 'Consequences' section). The focus on money can be induced in laboratory settings, as well as in organizational contexts, such as under hourly payment schedules and performance incentives, which are explained in detail below.

Laboratory tasks[edit]

People can be primed to think about money through simple laboratory procedures. Studies found that people who were asked to formulate sentences using money-relevant words (e.g., price) versus time-relevant words (e.g., clock) primed people to think about money, and they became more self-focused in their decisions about time use.[24][6] For example, participants who were primed to think about money spent more time working and less time socializing with friends.[6][24] They were also far less likely to help others or seek help.[24] There are various other manipulation techniques used to prime the concept of money. The 'descrambling task' consists of 30 sets of five jumbled words, where participants are asked to formulate sensible phrases using four of the five words. In the control conditions, all 30 of the phrases primed neutral concepts (e.g., “cold it desk outside is” descrambled to “it is cold outside”). In the money-prime condition, 15 of the phrases primed the concept of money (e.g., “high a salary desk paying” descrambled to “a high-paying salary”).[25] Other studies presented participants with money bills versus paper sheets to prime the concept of money.[26]

However, some of recent studies in the money-priming research failed to replicate these results.[27][28] Across several experiments, the same manipulation (e.g., showing an image of a $100 bill) did reliably activate the concept of money; however, it did not have consistent effects on several dependent measures including subjective wealth, self-sufficiency, agency, and communion, which are theorized to be influenced by the thought of money.[28] Furthermore, socioeconomic factors such as gender, socioeconomic status, and political ideology did not moderate these effects of money primes.[28] Since variance in study population and methods are inevitable across experiments, these laboratory studies should therefore be interpreted with caution. Caruso and his colleagues suggest that using large-scale pre-registered experiment and assessing wide-ranging individual factors within the same heterogeneous sample will be helpful in identifying meaningful variations among the dependent variables.[28]

Performance incentive[edit]

Research found that certain organizational practices promote economic evaluation of time. One such factor is performance incentives, a ubiquitous payment system used in various domains including education, health, and management.[29] The main alternative to performance incentives is task-based incentive (also known as fixed incentive)—a fixed amount of payment for completing a task.[30] Performance incentives, as compared to task-based incentives, increase people's attention to reward objects, which in turn heighten their desire for money.[31] This desire then motivates people's focus on earning monetary and material rewards, and decreases prosocial spending like making donations.[31]

Hourly payment[edit]

One of the most salient features in organizations that induce the economic evaluation of time is hourly pay, a type of payment schedule that approximately 58% of employees work under in the United States.[32] Time and money connection is particularly salient under hourly payment because people's income is a direct function of the number of hours they worked, multiplied by their rate of pay. Sanford DeVoe and Jeffery Pfeffer found that workers who were paid by the hour showed more similarity in how they evaluated time and money, as compared to workers who were paid by salary.[3] Specifically, people who were paid by the hour (vs. salary) applied mental accounting rules to time that are typically only applied to money. Participants were asked to rate their endorsement on a mental accounting questionnaire (e.g., "If I have wasted money [time] on a particular activity or item, I try to save it on another activity or item."), where DeVoe and Pfeffer found that hourly wage participants showed high similarity in how they applied mental accounting rules to both time and money, whereas salaried participants did not apply mental accounting rules to time.[3]

Furthermore, research looking at the economic evaluation of time proved that 'economic mindset' can be induced in laboratory settings through hourly wage calculations. Although not everyone is paid by the hour, every worker has an implicit hourly wage—their total income divided by the number of hours they worked. Therefore, participants who calculated their hourly wage in an experiment versus who did not calculate their hourly wage were more likely to adopt an economic mindset and were more willing to trade their time for money.[3]

DeVoe and Pfeffer[8] also showed that the mechanism for how hourly wage payment activates economic evaluation of time is the people's viewing of themselves as the economic evaluator in their decision-making. This suggests that the mere activation of an economic concept, such as hourly wage in general or of another person, itself cannot activate economic evaluation of time. Rather, a person's own prior experience with hourly payment or calculating one's own hourly wage (vs. another person's hourly wage) is what activates the economic evaluation. Therefore, the degree to which hourly payment impacts an individual's attitudes and behaviors depends on the extent to which the economic evaluation becomes more central to one's self-concept.[9]

Consequences[edit]

Devaluing non-compensated time[edit]

Economic evaluation of time impacts people's decisions about time use. A salient outcome for adopting an economic mindset, or thinking about time in terms of money, is devaluing of non-compensated time. Results from a survey of nationally representative sample of Americans from the May 2001 Current Population Survey (CPS) Work Schedule Supplement showed that people who were paid by the hour, compared to those not paid by the hour, weighed the monetary returns more strongly when making decisions about time use. Therefore, they showed greater willingness to give up their free time to earn more money ("Work more hours but earn more money" vs. "Work fewer hours but earn less money").[3] Another study demonstrated that technical contractors who sold their services by the hour came to evaluate their time in terms of money, which led the contractors to devalue non-compensated time (e.g., volunteering).[33] These non-compensated time use domains are discussed below.

Volunteering[edit]

People who are paid by the hour (vs. salary) volunteer less.[8][9] In the laboratory, participants who calculated their hourly wage (vs. those who did not calculate their hourly wage), volunteered less and also reported that they are less willing to volunteer their time.[8]

Pro-environmental behavior[edit]

People who are paid by the hour are less likely to engage in pro-environmental behaviors, such as recycling.[34] Simply asking participants to calculate their hourly wage lowered their willingness to engage in environmental behaviors as well as their actual behaviors in recycling scrap papers in a laboratory experiment. This is due to the hourly participants' spontaneous recognition of the trade-offs they are making with every minute of their time. People feel as if they are losing money when engaging in environmental activities because these are non-compensated.[34]

Social interaction[edit]

Economic evaluation of time undermines social interactions. Thinking about money increases people's willingness to work and reduces their willingness to spend time with others. In an experiment done by Cassie Mogilner, participants who thought about money-related words (e.g., price), compared to participants who thought about time-related words (e.g., clock), were significantly more likely to spend time working more and socializing less with loved ones.[6] As such, people who are focused on money are less interpersonally attuned—they are less caring and warm and rather in a business mindset.[23]

Well-being[edit]

Economic evaluation of time has multiple negative implications for well-being. Economic evaluation of time activates the human motivation system that is associated with self-focused values. People with an economic mindset therefore tend to prioritize personal achievement more than the wellbeing of others and spend time in ways that maximize personal gains. This tendency negatively contributes to well-being.[4]

First, evaluating time in terms of money motivates people to work more because every hour they put into non-compensated activities is lost money. Although this may be useful when trying to meet a short deadline at work, work time does not typically translate into happiness.[6] However, spending time with loved ones, such as family and friends, spending time volunteering, and engaging in pro-environmental behaviors have been found to contribute to greater happiness.[4][5][6] Daniel Kahneman also demonstrated that being prosocial and socializing with friends are known to be the happiest part of most people's days.[35] Economic evaluation of time that decreases these happiness-promoting activities may therefore have grave consequences on well-being.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Pfeffer, Jeffrey; DeVoe, Sanford E. (2012). "The economic evaluation of time: Organizational causes and individual consequences". Research in Organizational Behavior. 32: 47–62. doi:10.1016/j.riob.2012.11.001. ISSN 0191-3085.
  2. ^ DeVoe, Sanford E.; Pfeffer, Jeffrey (2009). "When Is Happiness About How Much You Earn? The Effect of Hourly Payment on the Money—Happiness Connection". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 35 (12): 1602–1618. doi:10.1177/0146167209346304. ISSN 0146-1672. PMID 19801526. S2CID 8269381.
  3. ^ a b c d e DeVoe, Sanford E.; Pfeffer, Jeffrey (2007). "When time is money: The effect of hourly payment on the evaluation of time". Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 104 (1): 1–13. doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2006.05.003. ISSN 0749-5978.
  4. ^ a b c d Lee-Yoon, Alice; Whillans, Ashley V (2019). "Making seconds count: when valuing time promotes subjective well-being". Current Opinion in Psychology. 26: 54–57. doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.05.002. ISSN 2352-250X. PMID 29800816. S2CID 46926075.
  5. ^ a b c Whillans, Ashley V.; Weidman, Aaron C.; Dunn, Elizabeth W. (2016-01-07). "Valuing Time Over Money Is Associated With Greater Happiness". Social Psychological and Personality Science. 7 (3): 213–222. doi:10.1177/1948550615623842. ISSN 1948-5506. S2CID 6562759.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Mogilner, Cassie (2010). "The Pursuit of Happiness". Psychological Science. 21 (9): 1348–1354. doi:10.1177/0956797610380696. ISSN 0956-7976. PMID 20732902. S2CID 32967787.
  7. ^ Hur, Julia D.; Nordgren, Loran F. (2016). "Paying for performance: Performance incentives increase desire for the reward object". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 111 (3): 301–316. doi:10.1037/pspa0000059. ISSN 1939-1315. PMID 27414236. S2CID 3409171.
  8. ^ a b c d DeVoe, Sanford E.; Pfeffer, Jeffrey (2007). "Hourly Payment and Volunteering: The Effect of Organizational Practices on Decisions About Time Use". Academy of Management Journal. 50 (4): 783–798. doi:10.5465/amj.2007.26279171. ISSN 0001-4273.
  9. ^ a b c Pfeffer, Jeffrey; DeVoe, Sanford E. (2009). "Economic evaluation: The effect of money and economics on attitudes about volunteering". Journal of Economic Psychology. 30 (3): 500–508. doi:10.1016/j.joep.2008.08.006. ISSN 0167-4870.
  10. ^ a b Franklin, Benjamin (1974). "Advice to a young tradesman. In L. W. Labaree & W. J. Bell (Eds.)". New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
  11. ^ Thorne, J. P. (1983). "Metaphors we live by". Journal of Linguistics. 19 (1): 245–248. doi:10.1017/s002222670000760x. ISSN 0022-2267.
  12. ^ Usunier, Jean-Claude G. (1991). "Business Time Perceptions and National Cultures: A Comparative Survey". MIR: Management International Review. 31 (3): 197–217. ISSN 0938-8249. JSTOR 40228064.
  13. ^ a b Leclerc, France; Schmitt, Bernd H.; Dube, Laurette (1995). "Waiting Time and Decision Making: Is Time like Money?". Journal of Consumer Research. 22 (1): 110. doi:10.1086/209439. ISSN 0093-5301.
  14. ^ a b Okada, Erica Mina; Hoch, Stephen J. (2004). "Spending Time versus Spending Money". Journal of Consumer Research. 31 (2): 313–323. doi:10.1086/422110. ISSN 0093-5301.
  15. ^ Soman, Dilip (2001). "The mental accounting of sunk time costs: why time is not like money". Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. 14 (3): 169–185. doi:10.1002/bdm.370. ISSN 0894-3257.
  16. ^ Gino, Francesca; Mogilner, Cassie (2013-12-06). "Time, Money, and Morality". Psychological Science. 25 (2): 414–421. doi:10.1177/0956797613506438. ISSN 0956-7976. PMID 24317421. S2CID 9794988.
  17. ^ Mogilner, Cassie; Aaker, Jennifer (2009). ""The Time vs. Money Effect": Shifting Product Attitudes and Decisions through Personal Connection". Journal of Consumer Research. 36 (2): 277–291. doi:10.1086/597161. ISSN 0093-5301. S2CID 18900038.
  18. ^ Carter, Travis J.; Gilovich, Thomas (2012). "I am what I do, not what I have: The differential centrality of experiential and material purchases to the self". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 102 (6): 1304–1317. doi:10.1037/a0027407. ISSN 1939-1315. PMID 22369046.
  19. ^ Belk, Russell W. (1988). "Possessions and the Extended Self". Journal of Consumer Research. 15 (2): 139–168. doi:10.1086/209154. ISSN 0093-5301.
  20. ^ Richins, Marsha L.; Dawson, Scott (1992). "A Consumer Values Orientation for Materialism and Its Measurement: Scale Development and Validation". Journal of Consumer Research. 19 (3): 303–316. doi:10.1086/209304. ISSN 0093-5301.
  21. ^ Reed, Americus; Aquino, Karl; Levy, Eric (2007). "Moral Identity and Judgments of Charitable Behaviors". Journal of Marketing. 71 (1): 178–193. doi:10.1509/jmkg.71.1.178. ISSN 0022-2429. S2CID 10396917.
  22. ^ Liu, Wendy; Aaker, Jennifer (2008). "The Happiness of Giving: The Time-Ask Effect". Journal of Consumer Research. 35 (3): 543–557. doi:10.1086/588699. ISSN 0093-5301. S2CID 14100006.
  23. ^ a b Vohs, Kathleen D. (2015). "Money priming can change people's thoughts, feelings, motivations, and behaviors: An update on 10 years of experiments". Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 144 (4): e86–e93. doi:10.1037/xge0000091. ISSN 1939-2222. PMID 26214169.
  24. ^ a b c Vohs, Kathleen D.; Mead, Nicole L.; Goode, Miranda R. (2006). "The Psychological Consequences of Money". Science. 314 (5802): 1154–1156. Bibcode:2006Sci...314.1154V. doi:10.1126/science.1132491. ISSN 0036-8075. JSTOR 20032843. PMID 17110581. S2CID 3258119.
  25. ^ Vohs, K. D.; Mead, N. L.; Goode, M. R. (2006). "The Psychological Consequences of Money". Science. 314 (5802): 1154–1156. Bibcode:2006Sci...314.1154V. doi:10.1126/science.1132491. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17110581. S2CID 3258119.
  26. ^ Genschow, Oliver; Schuler, Johannes; Cracco, Emiel; Brass, Marcel; Wänke, Michaela (2020). "The effect of money priming on self-focus in the imitation-inhibition task". doi:10.31234/osf.io/dbqac. S2CID 243640051. Retrieved 2020-12-11. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  27. ^ Vadillo, Miguel A.; Hardwicke, Tom E.; Shanks, David R. (2016). "Selection bias, vote counting, and money-priming effects: A comment on Rohrer, Pashler, and Harris (2015) and Vohs (2015)". Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 145 (5): 655–663. doi:10.1037/xge0000157. ISSN 1939-2222. PMC 4831299. PMID 27077759.
  28. ^ a b c d Caruso, Eugene M.; Shapira, Oren; Landy, Justin F. (2017-07-05). "Show Me the Money: A Systematic Exploration of Manipulations, Moderators, and Mechanisms of Priming Effects". Psychological Science. 28 (8): 1148–1159. doi:10.1177/0956797617706161. ISSN 0956-7976. PMID 28677989. S2CID 7282788.
  29. ^ Ryan, Richard M.; Deci, Edward L. (2000), "When rewards compete with nature", Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation, Elsevier, pp. 13–54, doi:10.1016/b978-012619070-0/50024-6, ISBN 978-0-12-619070-0, retrieved 2020-11-18
  30. ^ Enzle, Michael E; Ross, June M (1978). "Increasing and decreasing intrinsic interest with contingent rewards: A test of cognitive evaluation theory". Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 14 (6): 588–597. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(78)90052-5. ISSN 0022-1031.
  31. ^ a b Hur, Julia D.; Nordgren, Loran F. (2016). "Paying for performance: Performance incentives increase desire for the reward object". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 111 (3): 301–316. doi:10.1037/pspa0000059. ISSN 1939-1315. PMID 27414236. S2CID 3409171.
  32. ^ US Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers, 2017".
  33. ^ Evans, James; Kunda, Gideon; Barley, Stephen (2004). "Beach Time, Bridge Time, and Billable Hours: The Temporal Structure of Technical Contracting". Administrative Science Quarterly. 49 (1): 1–38. doi:10.2307/4131454. JSTOR 4131454. S2CID 154743637.
  34. ^ a b Whillans, Ashley V.; Dunn, Elizabeth W. (2015). "Thinking about time as money decreases environmental behavior". Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 127: 44–52. doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2014.12.001. hdl:2429/49958. ISSN 0749-5978.
  35. ^ Kahneman, Daniel; Krueger, Alan B.; Schkade, David A.; Schwarz, Norbert; Stone, Arthur A. (2004). "A Survey Method for Characterizing Daily Life Experience: The Day Reconstruction Method". Science. 306 (5702): 1776–1780. Bibcode:2004Sci...306.1776K. doi:10.1126/science.1103572. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 15576620. S2CID 13006499.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Economic_evaluation_of_time&oldid=1187335164"