Service Provider Salience: When Guilt Undermines Consumer Willingness to Buy Time
Spending money on time-saving services can improve happiness and reduce stress. Yet many people do not spend money to save time even when they can afford to do so, potentially because they feel guilty about paying other people to complete disliked tasks on their behalf. Consistent with this proposit...
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doaj-3fc45366551040f19e78d57af4fb79ab2020-11-25T03:46:05ZengUniversity of California PressCollabra: Psychology2474-73942020-06-016110.1525/collabra.252197Service Provider Salience: When Guilt Undermines Consumer Willingness to Buy TimeAshley V. Whillans0Alice J. Lee-Yoon1Elizabeth W. Dunn2Harvard Business School, Boston, MassachusettsUniversity of California, Los Angeles, CaliforniaUniversity of British Columbia, VancouverSpending money on time-saving services can improve happiness and reduce stress. Yet many people do not spend money to save time even when they can afford to do so, potentially because they feel guilty about paying other people to complete disliked tasks on their behalf. Consistent with this proposition, we find evidence that individuals are most likely to experience guilt when outsourcing to a salient service provider. Across two large-scale surveys of working adults, including a nationally representative sample of employed Americans (Study 1a & 1b, N = 1,337), individuals reported greater guilt when they thought about outsourcing to a salient (vs. non-salient) service provider. Using a novel lab paradigm, participants felt greater guilt when the service provider was salient, which in turn undermined their willingness to buy time (Study 2, N = 350). In Study 3, these effects were mitigated by emphasizing the benefits of task completion for the service provider (N = 390). This research points to the potential of simple interventions to help organizations encourage individuals to make time-saving purchases.https://www.collabra.org/articles/252timemoneyhappinessidentifiable victim effectsocial support |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Ashley V. Whillans Alice J. Lee-Yoon Elizabeth W. Dunn |
spellingShingle |
Ashley V. Whillans Alice J. Lee-Yoon Elizabeth W. Dunn Service Provider Salience: When Guilt Undermines Consumer Willingness to Buy Time Collabra: Psychology time money happiness identifiable victim effect social support |
author_facet |
Ashley V. Whillans Alice J. Lee-Yoon Elizabeth W. Dunn |
author_sort |
Ashley V. Whillans |
title |
Service Provider Salience: When Guilt Undermines Consumer Willingness to Buy Time |
title_short |
Service Provider Salience: When Guilt Undermines Consumer Willingness to Buy Time |
title_full |
Service Provider Salience: When Guilt Undermines Consumer Willingness to Buy Time |
title_fullStr |
Service Provider Salience: When Guilt Undermines Consumer Willingness to Buy Time |
title_full_unstemmed |
Service Provider Salience: When Guilt Undermines Consumer Willingness to Buy Time |
title_sort |
service provider salience: when guilt undermines consumer willingness to buy time |
publisher |
University of California Press |
series |
Collabra: Psychology |
issn |
2474-7394 |
publishDate |
2020-06-01 |
description |
Spending money on time-saving services can improve happiness and reduce stress. Yet many people do not spend money to save time even when they can afford to do so, potentially because they feel guilty about paying other people to complete disliked tasks on their behalf. Consistent with this proposition, we find evidence that individuals are most likely to experience guilt when outsourcing to a salient service provider. Across two large-scale surveys of working adults, including a nationally representative sample of employed Americans (Study 1a & 1b, N = 1,337), individuals reported greater guilt when they thought about outsourcing to a salient (vs. non-salient) service provider. Using a novel lab paradigm, participants felt greater guilt when the service provider was salient, which in turn undermined their willingness to buy time (Study 2, N = 350). In Study 3, these effects were mitigated by emphasizing the benefits of task completion for the service provider (N = 390). This research points to the potential of simple interventions to help organizations encourage individuals to make time-saving purchases. |
topic |
time money happiness identifiable victim effect social support |
url |
https://www.collabra.org/articles/252 |
work_keys_str_mv |
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