Time Loss Aversion

The present paper introduces “Time Loss Aversion” - people’s tendency to fear previous misallocations of time, which then motivates people to change their future behaviour. Loss aversion has previously been achieved through framing outcomes as losses. Previous research has induced loss aversion by framing monetary outcomes as losses rather than gains.. It presents a case study where time loss aversion was used to decrease people’s social media use. Social media use was framed in a manner of time spent in one week, a month or a year, rather than in terms of daily averages (the usual approach in screen time apps). This framing significantly motivated people to reduce their future social media use. Time loss aversion has implications for “time-based addictions” - addictions where the misallocation of time results in negative outcomes to people’s health, productivity and well-being. Finally, the paper discusses how time loss aversion can be implemented in the UX and UI of mobile devices and wearables to promote better outcomes for users.