Introducing a Novel Framework for Understanding The Relationships Between Busyness, Idleness, and Happiness

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Principal investigators:

Jacqueline Rifkin

University of Missouri - Kansas City

Email: jacqueline.rifkin@umkc.edu

Homepage: http://jacquelinerifkin.com/

Keisha Cutright

Duke University

Email: keisha.cutright@duke.edu

Homepage: https://www.fuqua.duke.edu/faculty/keisha-cutright


Sample size: 1200

Field period: 02/21/2019-05/20/2019

Abstract
People have a complicated relationship with time. On one hand, people often feel excessively busy and desire to effectively manage their time. On the other hand, people avoid too much idleness, since having too little to do is associated with depression and feelings of meaninglessness. Thus, there are mixed results on whether and when people prefer to be busier than normal or less busy than normal and, moreover, which state maximizes well-being. We propose that individuals’ future time perspective, or how much time they feel they have left in life, plays an important role in determining how they experience busyness and idleness. Specifically, when people have a longer future time horizon and focus is shifted to preparing for the future, busyness will be experienced as purposeful, while idleness will feel boring. Similarly, when people have a shorter future time horizon and focus is shifted to maintaining current mood, busyness will be experienced as stressful, while idleness will feel like a chance to prioritize one’s own needs. In turn, we suggest that these differences in the subjective experiences of busyness and idleness will influence overall happiness. The present study tested this novel theoretical framework by experimentally manipulating busyness and measuring future-time perspective as an individual difference.

Hypotheses

H1: When people have a longer future time perspective, busyness will be experienced as productive and idleness will be experienced as boring; whereas, when people have a shorter future time perspective, idleness will be experienced as time for the self and busyness will be experienced as stressful.

H2: These shifts in subjective experience will impact well-being: When people have a longer future time perspective, busyness will generate more happiness than idleness, while the reverse will be true for shorter time horizon.

Experimental Manipulations

In a 2-cell between-subjects design, participants were randomly assigned to think about how they have recently been busier (vs. less busy) than normal, depending on condition (Nowlan & Laran, 2016).

Outcomes

Participants answered 8 questions assessing their subjective experience of their current state (busyness or idleness): productive; stressed; bored; perceiving time for the self (2 items per subjective experience, and order counter-balanced).They also indicated current well-being by reporting how happy and fulfilled they currently feel (2 items; indexed).

Summary of Results

H1 was partially supported. The interaction of busyness and future-time perspective on feelings of stress was significant (interaction: p=.049): when future-time perspective is shorter (-1 SD), Busyness is more stressful than Idleness (p < .001), and this was attenuated when future time perspective was longer (p < .001). This finding partially supports H1 in that future time perspective impacts how stressful busyness feels. The interaction on perceived time for self was marginal (p = .068): when future-time perspective is shorter (-1 SD), Idleness felt more like time for self than Busyness (p < .001), and this was (marginally) attenuated when future time perspective was longer (p = .001). This finding partially supports H1 in that future time perspective impacts how much Idleness feels like time for the self. No other Busyness x Future Time Perspective interactions on subjective experience items were significant (boredom, productive). Overall, these results suggest that future time perspective impacts the subjective experience of busyness and idleness by influencing how stressful busyness feels, and the extent to which idleness feels like time for the self.

H2 was not supported. The interaction between Busyness and Future time perspective on well-being yielded only a significant positive effect of future time perspective (p<.001); the predicted two-way interaction was non-significant (p=.26). However, examining the simple effects of this interaction suggests that the trends were in the predicted direction. In particular, when future time perspective was shorter (-1 SD), participants were happier when encouraged to feel Idle (vs. Busy; ns), and the reverse was true when future time perspective was longer (+1 SD). Thus, while H2 was not supported in this data, perhaps future research may find stronger effects with more power, a streamlined procedure (i.e., eliminating the subjective experience measures), and measuring future time perspective prior to any manipulations (rather than after).