Time urgency and the Type A behavior pattern: Time investment as a function of cue salience

This study examined psychological entrapment and time investment by Type As and Bs as a function of objective time cue availability. Subjects were given an initial stake of $4.00 and allowed to work on an anagram task where successful completion of three sets of eight anagrams would result in the winning of an additional $2.00. However, time spent on the task resulted in a loss of money from the initial stake at a constant rate. One-third of the subjects had free access to a counter that indicated their current investment. Another third of the subjects could view the counter only at certain times during the task. A final third of the subjects could not view the counter and had to rely on subjective estimates of time investment. Results indicated that when no objective time cues were available, Type As invested more time and money than did Type Bs, with investments for Type As exceeding the worth of the jackpot. By contrast, where objective cues were available, Type As and Bs did not differ in their investments. These results indicate that Type As are more susceptible than Type Bs to psychological entrapment in a time investment situation, but only if they must rely on their own estimates of time expenditure.