"It is not enough to be busy...the question is what are we busy about?"
- Henry David Thoreau
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How people spend their time reflects their values, priorities, and their constraints. My research examines why, despite good intentions, many people struggle to improve their well-being by assessing the psychological and structural barriers that prevent people from leading healthier, happier lives.
By exploring how time use, financial decisions, and social perceptions shape well-being, I aim to provide actionable insights for marketers, employers, and policymakers working to promote wellness more effectively.
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You can find more information about my research below.
Self-Care Prioritization
Despite billions of dollars being poured into the self-care industry, poor mental and physical health is a global epidemic that is posing both a public health crisis and a significant economic concern. This paper examines a key psychological barrier that may help explain this disconnect: the tendency to deprioritize self-care when making decisions for oneself versus others. Across seven pre-registered experiments, we find that people anticipate greater moral judgment when considering self-care for themselves than for others, leading them to deprioritize their own self-care. This pattern doesn’t hold for other uses of time, like work or leisure, and is reduced among those higher in self-compassion or when decisions are made for the distant future. Our findings highlight a psychological barrier to self-care prioritization and offer actionable insights for organizations, employers, and policymakers seeking to promote well-being more effectively.
Emotional Consequences of Outsourcing Tasks
Outsourcing tasks to third-party services (e.g., dog-walkers, house cleaners, handymen) can enhance consumers’ well-being. However, admitting to having outsourced a task can evoke negative emotions that discourage consumers from disclosing their decision to outsource. Five preregistered experiments demonstrate that consumers feel less comfortable disclosing that they have outsourced a task than sharing that they completed it themselves. This discomfort arises because consumers feel embarrassed about having outsourced, and particularly so for tasks that require little skill and that other people likely expect them to complete independently. And although people's discomfort makes them less likely to share word-of-mouth communication about the services they use, we introduce ways to mitigate this discrepancy, so that outsourcing services may be able to achieve wider acceptance, ultimately saving consumers time and reducing stress.
Busyness and the Pursuit of Friendship
Busyness has increasingly become an aspirational status symbol, with many consumers embracing the “cult” of busyness and overwork. Yet, despite its positive status associations, does signaling busyness come at a social cost? Across five experiments featuring secondary data and hypothetical scenarios, this research demonstrates that individuals perceived as busier are seen as less willing or able to provide emotional support. As a result, people are less inclined to befriend busy individuals or to treat them in shared consumption experiences. Importantly, this effect diminishes when busy individuals actively signal their capacity to care for others, demonstrating not just their availability, but their willingness to invest in relationships. These findings contribute to the literature surrounding relationship development and time use by highlighting a social tradeoff of busyness.
Employee Well-Being Appeals
Organizations are increasingly investing in workplace wellness programs to support employee well-being and productivity. Yet, while the internal benefits of these initiatives are well-documented, less is known about how consumers perceive them. This research identifies that consumers are willing to pay a premium for products made by companies that prioritize employee well-being because such initiatives strengthen consumers’ emotional attachment to the brand. These findings highlight the dual impact of wellness initiatives: improving employee outcomes while also enhancing consumer perceptions. We also offer practical recommendations for companies to leverage workplace wellness efforts as part of broader strategies to engage both employees and consumers.
