How "busyness" became a bona fide status symbol

In experiments, they found that participants thought of people who were described as working longer hours as having higher status. They also tended to put brands or products that offer convenience or multi-tasking on a level with those known simply for being expensive.

“Luxury goods are losing signaling value” as more people can afford them, said Silvia Bellezza, a professor of marketing at Columbia University who co-authored the paper. Talking about a scarcity of time is “a more nuanced way to display [importance] that doesn’t go through conspicuous consumption. It’s implicitly telling you that ‘I am very important, and my human capital is sought after, which is why I’m so busy.’ ”

Bellezza’s research conducted several studies to see how “busyness” influences status. In a series of experiments, she and her colleagues asked respondents to rate the social status of a person described as working long hours at work versus one who has a more leisurely lifestyle. Again and again, participants rated the person who worked more as having more social status, even when the person the researchers asked about was thought to work slowly. In other words, getting the work done fast and having more time for leisure was not something associated with prestige.