UC Riverside

Impatience is a ubiquitous and unpleasant feeling; however, limited research has aimed to describe its characteristics. Based on a novel theoretical approach to understanding patience and impatience (Sweeny, 2023), we posit that impatience is an emotion that arises when a situation is appraised as featuring an objectionable delay to reaching a goal, and that this appraisal may be more or less likely depending on the salience of time (i.e., the availability of time cues). In this investigation, we aim to understand if having a greater awareness of time passing affects impatience. Across five studies, we examine the relationship between time salience and impatience in hypothetical (Studies 1a & 1b), real-world (Study 2), or contrived (Studies 3 & 4) situations that are impatience-inducing. We also examine the relationship between autotelic personality (i.e., proneness to engage in flow states) and impatience, considering that time salience may mediate this relationship by way of changes to time perception during flow states. Our findings suggest that impatience and appraisals of time salience are positively correlated, such that as one’s awareness of time passing increases, impatience also increases. Experimental findings suggest that the availability of time cues in impatience-inducing situations influences impatience, such that impatience is reduced when time cues are salient and amplified when time cues are not salient. Autotelic personality, though unrelated to time salience, emerged as a separate, negative predictor of impatience. Potential implications for the regulation of impatience are discussed. Taken together, the findings of our studies serve to support aspects of the process model of patience and provide a basis for further exploration into the role of time cues and time perception in impatience.