Abstract: Previous research demonstrated that, by activating a economic utility mindset of time, accounting for time induced individuals to spend less time on others. However, the influence of accounting for time on prosocial behavior may extend beyond simply how time is spent. In this study, we not only retested the effect of billing time on time spent helping, but also explored the effect on donation. The first study sampled 29 college students. Participants engaged in a consulting task, where they made mock personnel decisions for a fictitious company. Participants were randomly assigned to either a non-billing control condition or a billing-time treatment condition. They engaged in a nearly identical consulting activity in both conditions, except participants in the billing-time condition kept a log cataloging “specifically what you have done and how much each office’s budget should be charged for that time every ten minutes.” Next, participants appraised the extent of fatigue and their mood, and then completed the assessment of helping behavior. Results showed that participants in the billing-time condition spent less time on others. The present results are consistent with recent findings that people who evaluate their time in terms of money spend less time on others. A total of 47 participants took part in the second study. The procedure was identical with the first study, except that dependent variable became money spent helping. Results showed that Participants in the billing-time condition spent less money on others. The third study sampled 332 participants who had worked for more than one year from network. Participants in the time/money condition calculated their hourly wage. In contrast, participants who were assigned to the control condition proceeded directly to the rest of the study session. Subsequent to the manipulation, participants responded on a measure of money spent helping. Results showed that participants who calculated their hourly wage would spend less money on others, after statistically controlling for individual differences and these covariates. The present study revealed that, for individuals who had worked, putting price on time also influenced their willingness to spend money on others. Therefore, we conclude that accounting for time not only induces individuals to spend less time on others, but also reduced participants’ willingness to spend money to help others. This indicated that billing time activated a mindset of economic utility maximization that was not limited to the value of time.

Key words: accounting for time, prosocial behaviors, economic utility mindsets

摘要： 时间定价就是将金钱价格赋予时间之上，用金钱来衡量时间的价值。已有研究表明，时间定价激活时间经济价值最大化的心理定势，使个体更看重时间的经济回报，花更少的时间帮助他人。但是，时间定价对亲社会行为的影响可能并不仅仅局限于时间利他。本研究通过三个实验，除了考察时间定价对时间利他的影响外，还进一步探讨时间定价对金钱利他的影响。结果显示，时间定价不仅影响个体的时间利他行为，也削弱了金钱利他行为。这表明，时间定价所激活的经济效用心理定势不仅仅局限于时间这一种资源的效用。

关键词: 时间定价, 亲社会行为, 效用定势