Researchers gave students the same amount of time left before graduation and described it two different ways. Only one description changed what they did next.
Researchers Told Two Groups of Students the Same Number of Hours Were Left. Only the Group Told It Was Almost Over Started Living More.
In a 2008 study in Psychological Science, psychologist Jaime Kurtz found that students reminded how little time they had left began doing more of what they loved, and felt happier two weeks later. The other groups did not.
Most of us think we know how to enjoy a good thing. Stop and smell the roses. Be grateful. But the trouble with good things that go on for a long time is that we stop noticing them. **The friends, the routines, the familiar street all fade into the background** until something reminds us they will not always be there.
Psychologist Jaime Kurtz wanted to know what happens when that reminder arrives on purpose. She asked 67 University of Virginia students who liked college to write about it, and she changed only one thing: **how much time they were told they had left.**
The answer is a small, careful study, not a law of nature. But it points at something a lot of families feel and rarely say out loud.
1. The same stretch of time, told two ways
Students were randomly split into three groups. Two groups wrote about their friends, the campus, their activities, and college overall. One was told to keep in mind that they had **only a short amount of time left, about 1,200 hours before graduation.** The other was told they had a significant amount of time left, about a tenth of a year. The paper notes those two spans are roughly equivalent.
A third group simply wrote about a typical weekday. Over the next two weeks, everyone got four follow-up emails with more short writing prompts and a list of ten small college activities to check off, like spending time with friends, taking a scenic route to class, or feeling grateful for a friend.
Nobody was given less time. Two groups were given a different feeling about the same time.
2. Only the "almost over" group changed
Both writing groups appreciated college in similar ways. But **the students who had been reminded time was short reported a significant rise in well-being from the start of the study to the end.** The students told they had plenty of time did not, and neither did the weekday group.
They also did more. Over the two weeks, **the "almost over" students took part in more of the college activities on the list than the other two groups did.** They spent more time with friends, made plans, and noticed the place they were about to leave.
Being aware that something is ending did not make them sadder. It made them show up.
3. What this does and does not tell us
It is a small study of college students, and it measured two weeks, not a lifetime. Kurtz herself suggests a likely reason for the boost: the students who felt time was short became more involved with their friends and their surroundings, and **closeness to other people is one of the strongest predictors of happiness.**
College is not a family, and nothing in the study is about parents or grandparents. That leap is ours, not hers. But the mechanism is familiar to anyone who has watched a visit get warmer once everyone knows it might be one of the last.
The reminder that time is limited does not have to be a weight. It can be the thing that gets you to the porch, the table, or the phone.
Happiness does not consist in things themselves but in the relish we have of them.François de La Rochefoucauld, opening the 2008 Kurtz study in Psychological Science
What you get with LifeScribe
- A 2008 study in Psychological Science followed 67 University of Virginia students for two weeks after a short writing exercise about college.
- Only the group reminded that graduation was close showed a significant rise in well-being, and they took part in more of the activities they loved.
- Two groups were given roughly the same amount of time. The difference was whether they felt it was running out.
- Built on documented research: Jaime L. Kurtz, Psychological Science, 2008, volume 19, issue 12.
Start free, with nothing to lose
You do not need a big plan. Just a phone call, free. Ari asks about the people and moments you would hate to lose, and keeps them in your own voice, so the time you are aware of turns into something your family can keep.
We tend to treat the years with our people as endless right up until they are not. The students in this study were not given more time. They were given a reason to notice it. The stories you have not told yet, and the voices you have not kept, do not get the same second chance.
Notice the time you have. Keep what it holds.
Ari calls and listens, so the stories from these ordinary, precious hours are kept in your own voice for the people you love.
Questions grandparents ask us
What did the study actually find?
A 2008 study in Psychological Science found that college students reminded that graduation was close reported a significant rise in well-being over two weeks and took part in more college-related activities than students told they had plenty of time or students who wrote about a typical weekday.
How was the study done?
Sixty-seven University of Virginia students who enjoyed college were randomly assigned to one of three writing conditions. Two wrote about college, framed as either almost over or far off, and one wrote about a typical weekday. Over two weeks they completed four follow-up surveys about their mood and ten small college activities.
Did the two groups really have the same amount of time?
Roughly, yes. One group was told about 1,200 hours were left and the other about a tenth of a year. The paper notes those are roughly equivalent spans. What differed was the framing, short versus significant.
Does this apply to time with family?
The study did not test that. It looked only at college students and their college experience. The idea that awareness of limited time can deepen appreciation is a reasonable one to carry into family life, but that is our reading, not a finding of the study.
Who ran the study?
Jaime L. Kurtz, who was then at Pomona College and is now a psychology professor at James Madison University, published it in Psychological Science in 2008.
https://getlifescribeapp.com/blog/the-same-hours-told-two-ways