My Summer Holiday

Cormac Monaghan
cormac.monaghan@mu.ie

Hamilton Institute, Maynooth University

Professor Fuschia Sirois (Durham University)



Study 1: An experimental test of procrastination and social norms


Study 2: An experimental test of procrastination and social norms with young and older adults


Study 3: An experimental test of procrastination and social norms: The role of perspective

Social Norms

What are social norms

  • Shared, often unwritten rules that guide what is seen as acceptable and appropriate behaviour within a group or community.
  • Social norms help to maintain order and predictability in social life.
    • 🗨️ Saying “please” or “thank you.”
    • 🚪 Holding the door for someone.
  • Violating social norms often provokes negative social reactions1.

Disapproval

Exclusion

Embarrassment

Social Norms

Procrastination and social norms

  • Failing to meet social or task-related expectations can lead others to question one’s reliability or worth.
  • Chronic procrastination often clashes with norms of responsibility, punctuality, and self-discipline.
  • As a result, procrastinators may be socially devalued2.

Lazy

Unreliable

Weak

Study 1

Social Norms

Procrastination and social norms

Procrastination is not just a personal failure — it’s also a socially evaluated behaviour.

Social Norms

Age differences in social norms

  • How procrastination is judged may vary by age.
  • Socioemotional selectivity theory3 proposes that as people age and perceive their remaining time as limited, they increasingly prioritize emotionally meaningful, present-focused goals.
    • Potentially heighten the perceived cost of delaying important tasks.
  • Alternatively, older adults often develop structured routines, pragmatic prioritization strategies, and emotional regulation skills.
    • Life experience may lead to greater acceptance.

Competing lines of thought

Older adults might judge procrastination more negatively due to limited time horizons, or more leniently due to greater acceptance and coping strategies.

Study 2


Age differences in social norms

Research plan

  • Recruited 200 participants (100 younger & 100 older adults).
  • Used Prolific to collect data.
  • Presented multiple procrastination / non-procrastination scenarios.
    • General procrastination
    • Health procrastination
    • Financial procrastination
  • Participants provided ratings for several bipolar adjectives.
  • Analysed data using a multilevel model.

Age differences in social norms

Research questions

This project was pre-registered on the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/kjybe

While we had many research questions, our primary questions were:

  • Examining whether the social norms for general vs. health vs. financial procrastination differ, both within individuals, and compared to a control group.
  • Examining whether negative social norms associated with procrastination differ between age cohorts (younger vs older adults).


Multilevel model results






Age differences in social norms

Conclusions

Productivity

  • Health procrastination is perceived as more negatively productive than general procrastination.
  • However, financial procrastination is perceived as more negatively productive than both general or health procrastination.

Adjective Ratings

  • Both younger and older adults perceive financial procrastination as more shameful than general procrastination.
  • Younger adults perceive both health and financial procrastination as more present oriented than general procrastination.

Age differences in social norms

Conclusions



Procrastination may be seen as a universally negative social behaviour, irrespective of age.

References

1. Van Kleef, G. A., Wanders, F., Stamkou, E., & Homan, A. C. (2015). The social dynamics of breaking the rules: Antecedents and consequences of norm-violating behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 6, 25–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.03.013
2. Giguère, B., Sirois, F. M., & Vaswani, M. (2016). Delaying things and feeling bad about it? A norm-based approach to procrastination. In Procrastination, health, and well-being (pp. 189–212). Elsevier.
3. Carstensen, L. L. (2021). Socioemotional selectivity theory: The role of perceived endings in human motivation. The Gerontologist, 61(8), 1188–1196. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnab116


Procrastination is not just a personal failure — it’s also a socially evaluated behaviour.