The BBC News service posted an interesting article (July 25, 2017) entitled “Time, not material goods, ‘raises happiness’” by Helen Briggs. The article discusses a study in which individuals reported greater happiness when they paid others to do their chores. Dr. Elizabeth Dunn, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada conducted a series of surveys and from them, concluded that “…people who spend money to buy themselves more free time are happier- that is they have higher life satisfaction.” (Id.)

Why? Because of “time famine”. That is, people all over the world are stressing out over the lack of time. More and more demands are being made on our time demands each day which causes a lower sense of well-being and increases anxiety and insomnia. (Id.)

 

So… money does indeed buy time which leads to being happy. So- what does this have to do with conflict resolution? Quite a lot. When a defendant settles a lawsuit, isn’t she in fact freeing up her time in exchange for money? The settlement she pays means no more stress and anxiety over being sued and its possible outcome, no more time spent with the lawyers or in court having to deal with it. Rather, her time is now freed up to do what she wishes as she wishes. No more sleepless nights, no more stress thinking about what happens if she loses et cetera. No doubt, she is happy about those prospects!

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