Time Perception

One line of research examines how individuals perceive time and how this time perception relates to goals. For example, some of our recent studies showed that

  • whether a weekly calendar starts on Sunday or Monday can affect how motivated people are to work towards their goals (Davydenko & Peetz, 2019)
  • spending time in nature ‘slows down’ the subjective experience of time (Davydenko & Peetz, 2017)

Relationship Functioning

We also study how to improve relationship quality and examines individuals’ cognition about their relationships. For example, some of our recent studies showed that

  • making partner-oriented decisions increase general affect and positive feelings toward the romantic partner in the moment (Peetz, Milyavskaya, & Kammrath, 2021)
  • individuals show an ex-appraisal bias about their previous partners, seeing the past relationship as worse in retrospect than it actually was (Smyth, Peetz, Capaldi, 2020)

 

Individual Spending

Another line of research targets personal spending and financial decisions in day-to-day life. For example, some of our recent studies showed that

  • reminding people of personal financial self-control strategies reduces monthly spending (Peetz & Davydenko, 2021)
  • shopping lists reduce spending in the grocery store (Davydenko & Peetz, 2020)
  • income volatility is linked to locus of control and saving decisions (Peetz & Robson, 2021)

Read more about current and past research for each of these topics via the tabs on the left! You can also check out “Financial Matters“, a Psychology Today Blog summarizing some of our research or watch Johanna Peetz’ podcast with Rational Reminder!