The Allocation of Limited Life Resources: The Impact of Mortality Awareness and Happiness Orientation on Cognitive Effort

This dataset supports the research titled "The Allocation of Limited Life Resources: Effects of Mortality Awareness and Hedonic/Eudaimonic Orientation on Cognitive Effort". The studies examine how mortality awareness influences cognitive effort allocation and whether subjective time perception and motivational value orientations shape this effect. The core hypotheses were that (1) mortality awareness would increase cognitive effort via compressed subjective time perception (Study 1), and (2) hedonic and eudaimonic orientations would moderate this relationship, enhancing or reducing cognitive effort depending on motivational focus (Study 2). The dataset contains raw behavioral and questionnaire data from two laboratory experiments, including condition assignments (mortality vs. toothache salience; hedonic vs. eudaimonic orientation), measures of subjective time perception assessed through a line-marking task, and C-EEfRT behavioral records indicating effort choices. Data were collected from undergraduate participants through manipulation writing tasks, orientation priming materials, time perception assessment, and repeated effort decision trials. Results reflected that mortality awareness shortened perceived time and increased high-effort choices in Study 1, while in Study 2, mortality awareness increased effort under eudaimonic activation but decreased effort under hedonic activation. These findings provide evidence for an effort cost–benefit decision mechanism influenced by existential awareness and motivational orientation. The dataset can facilitate replication, secondary analysis, and extended modeling of cognitive effort allocation under mortality cues. All data are anonymized, clearly labeled, and can be interpreted using variable notes and task indicators included with the files.