Why making a date could take away all the fun of going out

DATE nights are sometimes the only time busy couples can squeeze some fun and romance into their lives. But scheduling leisure activities too strictly can turn them into chores, a study has found.

Researchers found that planning activities such as going to the cinema or taking a coffee break led people to enjoy them less, and also made the anticipation of them less enjoyable.

It emerged that ‘roughly planning’ an event – without giving a specific time – led to a similar amount of enjoyment as an off-thec-uff, unplanned event. In a study published in the Journal of Marketing Research, they reviewed 13 studies that looked at how scheduling leisure activities affects the way we think about them and experience them.

In one study, the researchers asked people to select an entertaining YouTube video to view. Some were asked to watch their chosen video immediately. Others chose a specific date and time to watch the video and put in on their calendar. Those who watched the scheduled video enjoyed it less than those who watched it immediately.

Selin Malkoc, study co-author and assistant professor of marketing at Ohio State University, said: ‘People associate schedules with work. We want our leisure time to be free-flowing.

‘Time is supposed to fly when you’re having fun. Anything that limits and constrains our leisure chips away at the enjoyment.’

Professor Malkoc added: ‘People don’t want to put time restrictions of any kind on otherwise free-flowing leisure activities.’

He said the findings could have implications for leisure companies.

Amusement parks offer tickets to avoid long queues. But this research suggests people will enjoy them less if the tickets are set for a particular time. Instead, they should offer a window of time, which would be the equivalent of rough scheduling.