The Power to Control Time: How Power Influences How Much Time (You Think) You Have

Time is commonly described as the “ultimate resource.” Unlike other resources, such as food or money, time is constantly being spent and can never be replaced. Because of the irreplaceable nature of time and all of the things that people want to accomplish, people often complain that they don’t have enough time, and this time pressure is a substantial stressor. Though power has been defined as control over resources, time appears to be a unique resource that equalizes all people, high and low in power alike. Although everyone objectively has the same amount of time, could power increase individuals’ subjective perceptions of the amount of time they have? We propose that power leads people to feel as though they have more control over their time, which results in more optimistic time-availability assessments. In fact, powerful individuals believe they have control over outcomes that they could not possibly control, such as the outcome of a die roll (Fast, Gruenfeld, Sivanathan, & Galinsky, 2009). If powerful individuals also feel they have control over their time, it stands to reason that they may also feel they have more time.