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Investigating Pain-Related Avoidance Behavior using a Robotic Arm-Reaching Paradigm
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Lost time undermines return behavior.

Linda Hagen1, Ed O'Brien2

  • 1Department of Marketing, University of Illinois Chicago, 601 S. Morgan St., Chicago, IL 60607, USA.

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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

The longer people wait to do enjoyable activities, the more they postpone returning. This occurs because people seek an "extra special" occasion to offset the delay, creating psychological barriers to re-engagement.

Keywords:
COVID-19change over timehappinesspreferencesreturn behavior

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Behavioral Economics

Background:

  • People often experience long intervals between engaging in desired activities.
  • Intuitively, longer waits should increase eagerness to return to enjoyable experiences.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the psychological effects of extended time gaps on the return to enjoyable activities.
  • To understand why people postpone returning to rewarding experiences despite wanting them.

Main Methods:

  • Five controlled experiments were conducted to examine the impact of time delays on return behavior.
  • Participants' choices to postpone or re-engage with activities after varying intervals were analyzed.
  • The study also explored the effect in the context of returning to activities post-COVID-19 shutdowns.

Main Results:

  • Contrary to intuition, longer delays led to increased postponement of returning to enjoyable activities.
  • Participants desired a more

Conclusions:

  • Extended time delays create self-imposed psychological barriers that hinder return to rewarding activities.
  • This postponement can lead to vicious cycles of deferment, impacting immediate happiness.
  • Interventions reframing return opportunities as special can mitigate this avoidance behavior.