RESEARCH

Mogilner, C., Hershfield, H.E., Aaker, J. (2018). Consumer Psychology Review, 1, 41–53.

How people think about and use their time has critical implications for happiness and well-being. Extant research on time in the consumer behavior literature reveals a pre- dominantly dichotomized perspective of time between the present and future. Drawing on research on emotions, social relationships, and financial decision-making, we discuss how removing categorical dichotomies might lead to beneficial outcomes. From this, we propose a conceptualization of time that assumes a less stark contrast between the present and the future, allowing these two time frames to more flexibly coexist in people’s minds and experiences. Finally, we discuss one way people might adopt this perspective to increase happiness—by taking an elevated or “bird’s-eye” perspective of time where the future and present, as well as the past, become equally visible, and where events from different time points are treated and experienced as part of one’s life and being overall.

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Hershfield, H.E*., Mogilner, C.*, & Barnea, U. (2016). Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Money and time are both scarce resources that people believe would bring them greater happiness. But would people prefer having more money or more time? And how does one’s preference between resources relate to happiness? Across studies, we asked thousands of Americans whether they would prefer more money or more time. Although the majority of people chose more money, choosing more time was associated with greater happiness—even controlling for existing levels of available time and money. Additional studies and experiments provide insight into choosers’ underlying rationale and the causal direction of the effect.

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Waytz, A., Hershfield, H.E.*, & Tamir, D.I.* (2015). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108, 336-355.

Mental simulation, the process of self-projection into alternate temporal, spatial, social, or hypothetical realities is a distinctively human capacity. Numerous lines of research also suggest that the tendency for mental simulation is associated with enhanced meaning. The present research tests this association specifically examining the relationship between two forms of simulation (temporal and spatial) and meaning in life. Study 1 uses neuroimaging to demonstrate that enhanced connectivity in the medial temporal lobe network, a subnetwork of the brain’s default network implicated in prospection and retrospection, correlates with self-reported meaning in life. Study 2 demonstrates that experimentally inducing people to think about the past or future versus the present enhances self-reported meaning in life, through the generation of more meaningful events. Study 3 demonstrates that experimentally inducing people to think specifically versus generally about the past or future enhances self-reported meaning in life. Study 4 turns to spatial simulation to demonstrate that experimentally inducing people to think specifically about an alternate spatial location (from the present location) increases meaning derived from this simulation compared to thinking generally about another location or specifically about one’s present location. Study 5 demonstrates that experimentally inducing people to think about an alternate spatial location versus one’s present location enhances meaning in life, through meaning derived from this simulation. Study 6 demonstrates that simply asking people to imagine completing a measure of meaning in life in an alternate location compared with asking them to do so in their present location enhances reports of meaning. This research sheds light on an important determinant of meaning in life and suggests that undirected mental simulation benefits psychological well-being.

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Alter, A.* & Hershfield, H.E.* (2014). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111, 17066-17070.

Although humans measure time using a continuous scale, certain numerical ages inspire greater self-reflection than others. Six studies show that adults undertake a search for existential meaning when they approach a new decade in age (e.g., at ages 29, 39, 49, etc.) or imagine entering a new epoch, which leads them to behave in ways that suggest an ongoing or failed search for meaning (e.g., by exercising more vigorously, seeking extramarital affairs, or choosing to end their lives).

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Hershfield, H.E., Scheibe, S., Sims, T., & Carstensen, L.L. (2013). Social Psychological and Personality Science, 4(1), 54-61.

Traditional models of emotion–health interactions have emphasized the deleterious effects of negative emotions on physical health. More recently, researchers have turned to potential benefits of positive emotions on physical health as well. Both lines of research, though, neglect the complex interplay between positive and negative emotions and how this interplay affects physical well-being. Indeed, recent theoretical work suggests that a strategy of ‘‘taking the good with the bad’’ may benefit health outcomes. In the present study, the authors assessed the impact of mixed emotional experiences on health outcomes in a 10-year longitudinal experience-sampling study across the adult life span. The authors found that not only were frequent experi- ences of mixed emotions (co-occurrences of positive and negative emotions) strongly associated with relatively good physical health, but that increases of mixed emotions over many years attenuated typical age-related health declines.

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Adler, J.* & Hershfield, H.E.* (2012). PLoS ONE, 7(4), 1-10.

The relationships between positive and negative emotional experience and physical and psychological well- being have been well-documented. The present study examines the prospective positive relationship between concurrent positive and negative emotional experience and psychological well-being in the context of psychotherapy.

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Carstensen, L.L., Turan, B., Scheibe, S., Ram, N., Ersner-Hershfield, H., Samanez-Larkin, G.R., Brooks, K., & Nesselroade, J.R. (2011). Psychology and Aging, 26(1), 21-33.

Recent evidence suggests that emotional well-being improves from early adulthood to old age. This study used experience-sampling to examine the developmental course of emotional experience in a representative sample of adults spanning early to very late adulthood. Participants (N 184, Wave 1; N 191, Wave 2; N 178, Wave 3) reported their emotional states at five randomly selected times each day for a one week period. Using a measurement burst design, the one-week sampling procedure was repeated five and then ten years later. Cross-sectional and growth curve analyses indicate that aging is associated with more positive overall emotional well-being, with greater emotional stability and with more complexity (as evidenced by greater co-occurrence of positive and negative emotions). These findings remained robust after accounting for other variables that may be related to emotional experience (personality, verbal fluency, physical health, and demographic variables). Finally, emotional experience predicted mortality; controlling for age, sex, and ethnicity, individuals who experienced relatively more positive than negative emotions in everyday life were more likely to have survived over a 13 year period. Findings are discussed in the theoretical context of socioemotional selectivity theory.

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Zhang, X., Ersner-Hershfield, H., & Fung, H.H. (2010). Psychology and Aging, 25(2), 310-320.

Poignancy is defined as a mixed emotional experience that arises when one faces meaningful endings. According to socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen, 2006), when people are aware of the finitude of time, they tend to experience more poignancy. In Study 1, we found that Chinese younger, but not older, participants experienced more poignancy under time limitations. In Study 2, we found that an emotion regulation strategy—namely, cognitive reappraisal—moderated the relationship between limited time and poignancy, such that the increases in poignancy under time limitations were found only among older Chinese participants with lower levels of cognitive reappraisal but not among those with higher levels of cognitive reappraisal. These findings contribute to the existing literature on poignancy by showing that not every older adult exhibits poignancy in the face of an ending: The poignancy phenomenon may occur among only older adults who are less likely to use an emotion regulation strategy, such as cognitive reappraisal, to reinterpret the anticipated ending.

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Ersner-Hershfield, H., Carvel, D.S., & Isaacowitz, D.M. (2009). Motivation and Emotion, 33(4), 333-342.

Poignancy is a mixed emotional experience that occurs in the face of meaningful endings (Ersner-Hershfield et al. J Pers Soc Psychol 94(1):158–167, 2008). Despite documentation of the phenomenological component of poi- gnancy, no study to date has examined the relationship between such a state and information processing. We there- fore examined the link between poignancy and attentional patterns using an eyetracking paradigm. To induce poi- gnancy, experimental condition participants imagined being in a personally chosen meaningful location for a final time; control participants also imagined being in a meaningful location but with no ending. After, both groups were shown emotional images. Experimental condition participants looked more at positive images relative to negative images, whereas participants in the control condition did not display such a preference. Findings suggest that despite being a mixed emotional experience, poignancy may produce a subsequent positivity effect in information processing.

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Ersner-Hershfield, H., Mikels, J. A., Sullivan, S., & Carstensen, L. L. (2008). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 158-67.

The experience of mixed emotions increases with age. Socioemotional selectivity theory suggests that mixed emotions are associated with shifting time horizons. Theoretically, perceived constraints on future time increase appreciation for life, which, in turn, elicits positive emotions such as happiness. Yet, the very same temporal constraints heighten awareness that these positive experiences come to an end, thus yielding mixed emotional states. In 2 studies, the authors examined the link between the awareness of anticipated endings and mixed emotional experience. In Study 1, participants repeatedly imagined being in a meaningful location. Participants in the experimental condition imagined being in the meaningful location for the final time. Only participants who imagined “last times” at meaningful locations experienced more mixed emotions. In Study 2, college seniors reported their emotions on graduation day. Mixed emotions were higher when participants were reminded of the ending that they were experiencing. Findings suggest that poignancy is an emotional experience associated with meaningful endings.

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