Thinking about events in this_way meant that something like a friend's wedding seemed 16.3 days sooner when considered in days rather than months and 11.4 months sooner when considered in months rather than years.

The researchers also tried to find out whether people would take action sooner if they were told a certain event was happening in several days rather than years.  For example, participants imagined they had a newborn child, and that the child would need to go to college in either 18 years or 6,570 days. The researchers found those in the “days” condition planned to start saving four times sooner than those in the “years” condition.