It is well understood that when something becomes scarce, its value goes up. However, the concept is not just limited to material goods, for even time becomes extremely precious when it's less, say researchers.
The study has shown that thinking about an experience's future ending can enhance one's present experience of it.In other words, thinking that their is limited amount of time remaining to participate in an activity makes a person appreciate the activity that much more and motivates him/her to make the most of it.
For the study, psychologist Jaime L. Kurtz from Pomona College investigated how a person's behaviour and attitude towards an activity change when there is a limited amount of time remaining to engage in it.
A group of college seniors participated in this study, which occurred 6 weeks prior to graduation.
Every day for two weeks, the students were to write about their college experiences, including the activities they participated in.
The experiment was designed so that some of the students were to think about graduation as a far-off event and some students were told to think about graduation as occurring very soon.
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It turns out, the students who thought of graduation as occurring very soon reported participating in more college-related activities compared to the students who thought of graduation as a far-off event.
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Kurtz said that these findings support the idea that "thinking about an experience's future ending can enhance one's present experience of it".
Also, Kurtz suggested that 'focusing on the fact the experiences like these are fleeting enhances enjoyment by creating a 'now or never' type of motivation'.
The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
Source-ANI
SPH