Summary: People frequently delay engaging in pleasurable activities despite their love for them to do so in order to experience something more specific. A new study found that people who don’t take their time off are more likely to delay reengagement, even when they like to go out with pals or eat out.
Even when the job was straightforward and enjoyable, research showed that individuals were less likely to communicate with friends after a long absence. Researchers believe that this voluntary wait is the result of a desire to make the returning feel valuable, exposing a elusive link between pleasure and procrastination.
Important Information
- Perceived Time Matters: People are more likely to delay returning after a while of being away from something pleasurable.
- Emotional Significance: People put off satisfying encounters in the hope that their return will feel unique.
- Behavioral Insight: This trait helps to explain a special type of procrastination: avoiding energy while putting off happiness.
PNAS Nexus Cause
According to a research, people frequently delay returning to their former enjoyment.
One may assume that someone who is unable to participate in enjoyable activities, such as catching up with pals or going to the movies, will jump at the chance to go back.
But, Linda Hagen and EdO’Brien claim in a number of surveys and experiments that people frequently delay engaging in previously rewarding behavior.
After the COVID-19 closures ended, surveyed Americans said they would wait longer to go back to bars, venues, parties, vacations, and community gatherings.
Respondents who felt their break from an activity had been for a while were more likely to delay returning in a study than those who reported a little perceived break.
In a different test, 200 university students were asked to either finish a tedious job assignment or leave a quick note of recognition for a friend.
Just 41 % of those who haven’t contacted the friend for a while ( on average one year ) chose to reach out to the friend, compared to 55 % of those who have only recently contacted them ( on average one week ) did so.
Similar outcomes were obtained in a separate study where adults were asked to word a brief hello to a colleague.
Participants stated that they wanted their first time again to be specific when asked about the causes of these voluntary difficulties in returning to their favorite activities.
According to the writers, the study provides insights into procrastination and other wait behaviors, which may be motivated by the perceived beneficial value of a potential task in some circumstances.
” Right now” does not feel particularly specific enough.  ,
About this information from psychology research
Writer: EdO’Brien
Source: PNAS Nexus
Contact: Ed O’Brien – PNAS Nexus
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
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EdO’Brien and others ‘” Lost moment affects return behaviour.” Nexus PNAS
Abstract
Missing time devalues return conduct
People frequently go through protracted spaces of moment between accomplishing their passion projects. In theory, people may jump at the chance to enjoy something afterwards the quicker the time has passed since someone next enjoyed it.
Five experiments in reality reveal a situation of the same: People return more frequently because they demand their return become “extra specific” to make up for the wait.
This result spread across a number of handled parameters. Participants, for instance, chose to avoid communicating with close friends after significant or minor communication spaces, which was detrimental to their enjoyment right away.
We found that individuals delayed returning to regular activities for some time, sometimes even for an extended period of time ( as opposed to jumping up at their first sufficiently fine chance ) if it meant they could better mark the occasion. This effect extended to COVID-19 contexts.
Lastly, helping individuals reframe any chance of returning as “extra special” helped to attenuate this result.
These findings up suggest that self-imposed mental barriers to returning are created by time delays.
People may be getting back into gratifying habits, avoiding contacts with loved ones, and doing so as they go along, but the longer it lasts, it is becoming a vicious cycle of deferment.
It may be remarkably challenging to persuade people to go back to experiences that would enhance their fast happiness—experiences they still want to have and are then theirs to take.
