Why Power in the Workplace Makes People Feel They Control Time

The Wall Street Journal: 

When it comes to time, people in power believe they have more of it at their disposal than others.

In reality, time is a great equalizer. Minutes tick by at the same pace for all, whether the sun measures our day by lengthening shadows or an atomic clock subdivides our every second into 9 billion molecular moments.

But positions of authority give people a sense they are better able to control time than subordinates, even though both groups are equally at the mercy of the clock.

That conclusion is among the findings of five recent studies that measured how status and authority—the “boss effect”—shape our inner time zones.

…

“We all adhere to the same clocks,” said social psychologist Serena Chen at the University of California at Berkeley, who conducted experiments on the perception of time published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology with colleague Alice Moon. “Yet we are showing that power can shift your perception of time.”

Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal