Further steps beyond Parkinson's Law: A replication and extension of the excess time effect

Abstract Subjects were “accidentally” allowed either five or fifteen minutes to perform a task which could be completed in five minutes. Subjects who were allowed excess time spent a significantly greater amount of time actually working on the task than those allowed minimum time, thus demonstrating Parkinson's Law—that work expands to fill the time available. Subsequently, subjects were presented with a second task which was either identical to, similar to, or different from the initial task. Of the subjects given the identical task, those who had been allowed excess time on the initial task chose to spend a greater amount of time performing the second task than those initially allowed minimum time. Thus, Aronson and Gerard's 1966 demonstration of the excess time effect was replicated. The design also permitted a test of the extent to which this effect generalized to dissimilar tasks as well as a test of a dissonance interpretation of the effect. Results regarding these last two aims were suggestive but inconclusive.