Concept
Prosocial Time Giving
happiness altruism time-perception
Spending time helping someone else doesn't just feel good in the moment — it paradoxically makes people feel like they have more free time overall afterward, more than spending the same amount of time on themselves does. Cassie Holmes attributes this to self-efficacy: helping someone else with a defined task (editing an essay, shoveling a neighbor's snow, writing a letter) gives a person concrete, visible proof of what they can accomplish with a small amount of time, and that feeling of "I got a lot done" generalizes into feeling more capable — and therefore more time-rich — across the board.
In one study, participants told to spend 30 minutes on a Saturday doing something for someone else (not something they were already planning) reported feeling like they had more free time that evening than participants told to spend the same 30 minutes on themselves — regardless of the specific activity chosen in either group (see Helping-vs-Self-Time-Use Time-Affluence Study). In a stricter test, students given 15 minutes to help edit a stranger's college application essay subsequently reported feeling like they had more spare time than students simply released 15 minutes early with no task at all — helping beat even a genuine, unearned time windfall (see Bonus-Time-vs-Helping Time-Affluence Study).
This directly undercuts a common instinct under time pressure. People who feel rushed are the ones most likely to skip helping someone in visible need — the same instinct behind Darley and Batson Good Samaritan Priest Study — yet that's precisely the moment helping would most improve their own felt sense of having enough time.
Discussed in
- Episode 129 — 129-can-too-much-free-time-make-you-unhappy