Time Perspective, Health, and Risk Taking

Over 15 million minutes ago, in the slower days of the early 1970s (Glieck, 1999), a remarkable experiment on time press and helping behavior was conducted by social psychologists John Darley and Dan Batson (1973). They observed how individual Princeton seminary students behaved in preparation for giving a speech on the parable of the Good Samaritan. The speech was to be given in a building across campus and would be evaluated by the seminarians’ supervisors. As each student completed his preparation, he was told that: (a) He was late for his presentation, that he had been expected a few minutes ago; (b) he had plenty of time before his presentation, but that he might as well head on over; or (c) an in-between time message, that he was on time and should head over now. The researchers were curious about the effect, if any, of this manipulation of time press on helping behavior among those whose religious preparation and assumed altruistic inclination may have predisposed them to helping others.