关键词: 时间定价, 亲社会行为, 效用定势

Abstract: Previous research demonstrated that, by activating a economic utility mindset of time, accounting for time induced individuals to spend less time on others. However, the influence of accounting for time on prosocial behavior may extend beyond simply how time is spent. In this study, we not only retested the effect of billing time on time spent helping, but also explored the effect on donation. The first study sampled 29 college students. Participants engaged in a consulting task, where they made mock personnel decisions for a fictitious company. Participants were randomly assigned to either a non-billing control condition or a billing-time treatment condition. They engaged in a nearly identical consulting activity in both conditions, except participants in the billing-time condition kept a log cataloging “specifically what you have done and how much each office’s budget should be charged for that time every ten minutes.” Next, participants appraised the extent of fatigue and their mood, and then completed the assessment of helping behavior. Results showed that participants in the billing-time condition spent less time on others. The present results are consistent with recent findings that people who evaluate their time in terms of money spend less time on others. A total of 47 participants took part in the second study. The procedure was identical with the first study, except that dependent variable became money spent helping. Results showed that Participants in the billing-time condition spent less money on others. The third study sampled 332 participants who had worked for more than one year from network. Participants in the time/money condition calculated their hourly wage. In contrast, participants who were assigned to the control condition proceeded directly to the rest of the study session. Subsequent to the manipulation, participants responded on a measure of money spent helping. Results showed that participants who calculated their hourly wage would spend less money on others, after statistically controlling for individual differences and these covariates. The present study revealed that, for individuals who had worked, putting price on time also influenced their willingness to spend money on others. Therefore, we conclude that accounting for time not only induces individuals to spend less time on others, but also reduced participants’ willingness to spend money to help others. This indicated that billing time activated a mindset of economic utility maximization that was not limited to the value of time.

Key words: accounting for time, prosocial behaviors, economic utility mindsets