The study examined the difference between presenting time as a length – ‘Macallan 18 years old’, for example – versus saying ‘Macallan 2008’, with the former description increasing people’s perception of its value because the whisky age feels older.
Tell me more
The study* introduces a concept called ‘logarithmic compression’ or the year-length effect to explain why length feels longer than years. According to scientists, people represent numbers logarithmically, meaning larger numbers are mentally compressed. The distance between 100 and 105, therefore, feels smaller than the distance between one and six.
Let’s put it another way: a $1 discount on a $5 coffee feels meaningful, but $1 off a $1,000 coffee machine feels trivial.
“Our work shows that this basic property of number perception also shapes how far time feels, revealing how number and time perception are deeply intertwined in the human mind,” writes Deepak Sirani, one of the lead researchers, on LinkedIn.
Length makes time feel longer, he adds, so it follows that:
- ‘10 years’ feels further away than framing it by year, ‘since 2015’ or ‘until 2035’.
- ‘Bought 6 years ago’ makes a used item feel older and less valuable than ‘bought in 2019’.
- ‘50% return in 4 years’ in relation to an investment product feels worse than ‘50% return since 2021’.
- ‘20-year-old brand’ feels older than ‘brand established in 2005’.
Why time perception matters
Time perception is powerful and the way it is communicated can affect consumer judgement and choice, whether it’s evaluating financial returns, choosing mortgages, buying used goods, or assessing brand heritage.
The research, therefore, has implications for retirement planning, warranty design, climate goals, brand communication, and many other categories where the perception of age/time influences whether something is seen as more valuable or less, or more attainable or not.
Takeaways
- An analysis of over 50,000 whiskey auctions showed that bottles with age described by length (e.g. ‘12 years old’) sold for approximately 9% higher than those described by vintage year, such as bottled in 2013.
- Bottle size also positively influences price, with larger bottles commanding higher prices.
- Investments described using year framing (‘in 2007’, for example) are evaluated more favorably than those described using length framing (‘18 years ago’).
- Consumers were willing to pay 17% more for used furniture described by the purchase year (e.g. ‘bought in 2022’) than by length (e.g. ‘bought 2 years ago’).
- When choosing between mortgages, framing the fixed-rate period as a length (e.g. ‘5 years’) rather than a year (e.g. ‘until 2030’) caused consumers to place greater importance on the duration of the fixed rate.
What it means for marketers
- Highlight longevity: Brands wishing to emphasize heritage might want to consider using length framing, such as ‘operating for 24 years’ rather than ‘since 2001’.
- Highlighting newness/immediacy: Sellers of used goods or companies making climate pledges should use year framing, like ‘carbon neutral by 2030’ or ‘bought in 2023’, to make the target feel closer or the product feel newer.
- Pricing power: In the whisky market, for example, over 30% of brands still use year framing, despite the premium price commanded by length framing, which suggests a missed opportunity for maximizing revenue.
*The findings are based on several studies, including a dataset of 50,916 whisky auctions, financial investments, used goods, mortgages, and insurance brands, and two experiments that manipulated time framing to test the causal effect of time perception.
Source: warc.com