When Time Has a Will of Its Own, the Powerless Don't Have the Will to Wait: Anthropomorphism of Time Can Decrease Patience

This article introduces time anthropomorphism: a tendency to imbue time with humanlike mental states (e.g., time has a will of its own). This tendency, which varies across individuals and may also be induced, changes patience (e.g., for standard over expedited shipping). Specifically, time anthropomorphism reduces patience for low-power (but not high-power) individuals because anthropomorphism makes the aversive force of wait time seem more...