Time Scarcity

Time Scarcity

Reviewed by Faisal Zaidi

The sense of not having enough time.

What it is

Whillans and colleagues proposed that it rises as wealth rises, and that using money to buy time can act as a buffer against its effect on life satisfaction. It is drawn from work by Ashley Whillans and colleagues (2017).

In effect

In the article on why we pay for convenience, it serves as the pressure that time-saving purchases are proposed to relieve.

What it does not say

The proposal is that scarcity rises with wealth and that buying time can buffer its effect on life satisfaction. It is a proposal drawn from survey and experimental work and not a measure of how much time anyone has.

Sources

  1. Whillans, A. V., Dunn, E. W., Smeets, P., Bekkers, R., & Norton, M. I. (2017). Buying time promotes happiness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(32), 8523-8527.