Ever seen this saccharine nonsense on Etsy or Pinterest? Probably not, unless you make the fatal mistake of clicking on the links your girlfriend shares with you. Anyway, it’s a sign that says “Remember: you have as many hours of the day as Beyoncé”. Technically true, but not really.
A study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology has found that people with more power tend to think of themselves as having more time, and they aren’t wrong. Researchers had 102 students imagine themselves in a job interview, some being the interviewer and others the interviewee. They then had to take a survey filled with agree or disagree questions like Time is slipping away or I feel like there is plenty of time in my life to make new plans. Those who simply imagined having more power tended to feel more in control over time. Further experiments with people who possessed actual power confirmed the idea.
People with power probably feel like they have more control over time because that’s actually the case. Get high enough on the corporate food chain, and you get assistants to handle your less desirable tasks. Have enough money, and you can outsource all kinds of time-consuming stuff, from cleaning to shopping to childcare. On top of that, you have more control over how you spend your time. After all, if Beyoncé says she’s walking into the recording studio only after her afternoon work out, then guess what? Her crew has to wait, and it doesn’t matter that everyone gets twenty-four hours—they’re on Beyoncé’s time.
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Photo courtesy of flickr.
