Abstract
Time poverty – the subjective experience of insufficient time – has become a pervasive phenomenon in contemporary societies, yet its psychological consequences for consumer decision-making remain underexplored. Drawing on scarcity theory, we examine how time poverty shapes preferences for access-based consumption (ABC) – temporary use without ownership – a market-mediated model transforming consumer societies worldwide. Across four studies (N = 831), we show that time poverty significantly increases ABC preferences through dual mechanisms: amplified convenience orientation while attenuated risk perception. Study 1 established the causal effect of experimentally induced time poverty on ABC preference. Study 2 demonstrated that both mediators independently explain this relationship. Studies 3a and 3b provided convergent causal evidence: experimentally enhancing each mediator significantly attenuated the time-poverty effect on ABC preference while controlling for financial scarcity, general sense of scarcity, and construal level. Together, these dual pathways – heightened convenience-seeking coupled with diminished risk sensitivity – indicate that time-poor consumers may systematically trade risk evaluation for efficiency in ABC decisions. These findings illuminate the psychological forces driving major shifts in contemporary consumption practice and carry implications for consumer welfare and public policy in increasingly time-constrained societies.