What question did this study set out to answer?

To examine how framing equivalent time intervals as durations versus start and end times alters subjective time perception and downstream consumer decisions.

September 17, 2026Journal of Consumer ResearchOpen Access

Time-Duration Asymmetries in Consumer Decision-Making

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Authors

JWJiabi Wang KDKristin Donnelly

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Overview

Experimental study reveals time-duration asymmetries in consumers, indicating that interval length dictates whether duration or clock-time framing feels subjectively longer.

Key Points

To examine how framing equivalent time intervals as durations versus start and end times alters subjective time perception and downstream consumer decisions.
Conducted eight behavioral experiments involving consumer decision-making tasks (total N = 16,604).
Compared participant evaluations and choices across intervals framed either as durations (e.g., in minutes or days) or start-and-end times (e.g., clock times or calendar dates).
Relatively short time intervals feel subjectively longer when presented as durations compared to clock times or calendar dates.
The effect reverses for longer time intervals, where duration framing feels shorter than start-end framing due to diminishing sensitivity in scalar representations.

Cite This Study

Wang et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6aabb6e95f706d05830e5ad0 https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucag039

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September 17, 2026Journal of Consumer ResearchOpen Access

Time-Duration Asymmetries in Consumer Decision-Making

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

Authors

JWJiabi Wang KDKristin Donnelly

Discussion

Member takes

Overview

Experimental study reveals time-duration asymmetries in consumers, indicating that interval length dictates whether duration or clock-time framing feels subjectively longer.

Key Points

To examine how framing equivalent time intervals as durations versus start and end times alters subjective time perception and downstream consumer decisions.
Conducted eight behavioral experiments involving consumer decision-making tasks (total N = 16,604).
Compared participant evaluations and choices across intervals framed either as durations (e.g., in minutes or days) or start-and-end times (e.g., clock times or calendar dates).
Relatively short time intervals feel subjectively longer when presented as durations compared to clock times or calendar dates.
The effect reverses for longer time intervals, where duration framing feels shorter than start-end framing due to diminishing sensitivity in scalar representations.

Cite This Study

Wang et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6aabb6e95f706d05830e5ad0 https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucag039

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