Study reveals why 'canceled meetings' feel better than a fully-planned vacation

Imagine you are told to join an office meeting in half an hour, and just as you're walking into the conference room, a notification pops up on your phone: "The meeting is cancelled." What most experience is a sudden gush of dopamine to their brain, right? Well, if you've ever felt anything like that, then you, my friend, aren't alone. The incredible sense of delight doesn't necessarily mean inadequate preparation. In fact, the unexpected time gain apparently feels longer than usual, leading to increased happiness, according to a new study published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.

The study led by Gabriela Tonietto, an associate professor at the Rutgers Business School, revealed that "gained" free time that arrives unexpectedly feels longer than the free time you plan for. For instance, an hour after a cancelled meeting feels longer than the usual sixty minutes you budget for a hobby, "and that deviation from expectation creates a unique sense of opportunity," explained Tonietto, the lead author. Even though the duration is the same, our brain treats the unplanned or surprise 'free hour' as bigger or more spacious. 

Tonietto and her colleagues at Ohio State University, the University of Toronto, and Peking University conducted a total of seven surveys with more than 2,300 participants to understand how gained time (or "windfall time") feels and how people use it differently. The first four surveys found that gained intervals feel subjectively extended. The study concluded, "Gained intervals of time are uniquely judged against the implicit reference point of having no free time, leading to a contrast effect for subjective magnitude — as a result, equivalent intervals of time feel perceptually longer when gained versus expected to be free."

Next, researchers analyzed how people used their gained free time and observed that respondents were more likely to choose longer activities than they would during planned free time. Take, for example, the study of 243 undergraduates in a lab setting. Half of the participants were told from the beginning that their session would end early, giving them a planned ten minutes of free time. The remaining participants were informed of the same halfway through the session, and how both groups behaved completely blew the researchers away.

After the session, when all participants walked down a hallway, researchers observed that those who had gained ten minutes spent nearly 13.4% more time while leaving the lab. It means that although both groups had the same ten minutes, only one felt like they had more time. But this doesn't mean people only choose to complete productive tasks during a windfall.

A survey of 32,000 Americans analyzed how participants spend their 24 hours and found that, on average, Americans have at least 4.5 hours (270 minutes) of free time every day. However, despite having almost the same number of hours, different groups spend them differently. The study found that people with lower income or less education had more free time, but they spent most of it watching TV rather than doing anything more productive. It means what matters is how people choose to use their time and not about having enough time. Similarly, researcher Tonietto said, "The more unexpected the gain is, the more likely you are to be unproductive. Canceling something at the very last minute can guide people toward leisure," highlighting her research findings. 

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