Shared Time Scarcity and the Pursuit of Extraordinary Experiences. (December 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Garcia-Rada, Ximena; Kim, Tami
• Is Part Of: Psychological science. Volume 32:Number 12(2021)
• Page Start: 1871
• Page End: 1883
• Publication Date: 2021-12
• Subjects: shared time -- shared experiences -- close relationships -- relationship maintenance -- open data -- open materials -- preregistered; Psychology -- Periodicals; 150.5
• DOI: 10.1177/09567976211026981
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0956-7976

Abstract

This work documents a relationship-maintenance strategy that individuals use when they perceive their time with a partner as scarce (vs. abundant): choosing to share extraordinary experiences (i.e., those characterized by uniqueness and superiority; pilot study N = 57). Study 1 first tested this notion in a social media experiment ( N = 35, 848 ad impressions on 25, 148 adults). Study 2 ( N = 393 adults) suggested that individuals choose extraordinary experiences as a way of sustaining the focal relationship, which leads them to prioritize extraordinariness over other attributes, such as quantity (Study 3: N = 100 adults) and convenience (Study 4: N = 799 adults). Consistent with the relationship-maintenance account, results showed that this prioritization of extraordinary experiences when facing shared time scarcity occurs only when individuals have a strong relationship-maintenance goal (Study 4). Taken together, these studies advance our understanding of the antecedents of experiential choices in close relationships.