Moving Forward

Abstract

Two distinct spatial metaphors for the passage of time can produce disparate judgments about grieving. Under the object-moving metaphor, time seems to move past stationary people, like objects floating past people along a riverbank. Under the people-moving metaphor, time is stationary; people move through time as though they journey on a one-way street, past stationary objects. The people-moving metaphor should encourage the forecast of shorter grieving periods relative to the object-moving metaphor. In the present study, participants either received an object-moving or people-moving prime, then read a brief vignette about a mother whose young son died. Participants made affective forecasts about the mother’s grief intensity and duration, and provided open-ended inferences regarding a return to relative normalcy. Findings support predictions, and are discussed with respect to interpersonal communication and everyday life.

The Influence of Event Valence and Emotional States on the Metaphorical Comprehension of Time

“…In line with previous studies (Margolies and Crawford, 2008; Ruscher, 2011), we found a general tendency that future events with positive valence led to a preference for the ego-moving perspective, compared with negative valence events. This is not hard to comprehend because looking forward to positive events and keeping away from negative ones is consistent with the human nature of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.…”

“…Recent studies have revealed that the emotional valence of events can be associated with different perspectives of time movement (e.g., Margolies and Crawford, 2008; Ruscher, 2011; Richmond et al, 2012; Lee and Ji, 2014). A common hypothesis in these studies is that positive emotions are typically associated with the ego-moving perspective, whereas negative emotions are associated with the time-moving perspective.…”

“…In contrast, when participants were asked to think of a dreadful future event (Margolies and Crawford, 2008; Lee and Ji, 2014), or in an anxiety/sadness-induced condition (Richmond et al, 2012), they tended to evoke the time-moving perspective and felt that the event was approaching them. Further, Ruscher (2011) has found that after being primed to adopt an ego-moving perspective, participants were more likely to forecast shorter grieving periods in comparison with the time-moving perspective. This demonstrates the influence of temporal-spatial metaphor representation on emotional feelings.…”

Agency and Time Representation in English and Dutch Speakers

“…Namely, in the ego-moving representations the ego is the moving, agentic entity, typically taking the subject role in linguistic constructions (e.g., We approach the deadline/Wij naderen de deadline), which gets assigned greater agency in both Dutch and English (Henley et al, 1995;McGlone & Pfiester, 2009;Ruscher, 2011;van Dijk, 1988; see also . Conversely, in the time-moving representation, the ego is the stationary non-agentic entity, typically being omitted or taking the object role in linguistic constructions (e.g., The deadline is approaching (us)/De deadline nadert (ons)).…”

“…The idea that agency and time representation might be linked in such a way is corroborated by various studies. Indirect support for the link between agency and time representation, for example, comes from the work by McGlone and Pfiester (2009) and Ruscher (2011). Building on research linking agency to positive affect through an approach motivation (Higgins, 1997; Krieglmeyer, Deutsch, de Houwer, & de Raedt, 2010; Margolies & Crawford, 2008), they point out the inherent differences in the way that agency is assigned in ego- and time-moving expressions (McGlone & Pfiester, 2009; Ruscher, 2011).…”