Time moving or ego moving? How time metaphors influence perceived temporal distance

Abstract

Consumers often use spatial metaphors to describe time. Through six studies, the present research demonstrates that time metaphors influence consumers' perceptions of the temporal distance to future events. Specifically, an ego‐moving metaphor, which characterizes the movement of the self across a timeline from present to future, leads consumers to perceive a target event as more temporally distant than a time‐moving metaphor that illustrates the movement of the event from future to present. This time metaphor distance effect arises because the ego‐moving (vs. time‐moving) metaphor hinders psychological arousal and thus makes the events seem more temporally distant. We also demonstrate a downstream consequence of this effect: by lengthening the perceived temporal distance, the ego‐moving (vs. time‐moving) metaphor leads to greater consumer impatience in a waiting context.

Approaching future rewards or waiting for them to arrive: Spatial representations of time and intertemporal choice

“…Xu et al argue that ego-moving descriptions increase perceived temporal distance due to a reduction in psychological arousal when individuals conceptualise themselves approaching (rather than being approached by) future events. Supporting this argument, participants perceived a difficult job interview next week as more temporally distant when it was described using an ego-moving (vs. time-moving) metaphormediated by decreased psychological arousal [14,Study 2]. This finding is also consistent with the theoretical framework we have outlined, with an ego-moving perspective allowing people to maintain psychological distance from potentially threatening or aversive future events.…”

“…Also of relevance to the present study, research by Xu et al [14] (published after data collection for the present study had concluded) appeared to demonstrate that future events described using ego-moving (vs. time-moving) linguistic metaphors were perceived as more temporally distant, regardless of valence. Xu et al argue that ego-moving descriptions increase perceived temporal distance due to a reduction in psychological arousal when individuals conceptualise themselves approaching (rather than being approached by) future events.…”

“…This finding is also consistent with the theoretical framework we have outlined, with an ego-moving perspective allowing people to maintain psychological distance from potentially threatening or aversive future events. However, while we have argued that an ego-moving perspective should make positively valenced future events seem more proximal, Xu et al [14] found that even a seemingly positive future event (delivery of a new mobile phone) was perceived as more temporally distant when framed with an ego-moving linguistic metaphor (e.g., "You are approaching the delivery day") compared to a time-moving metaphor (e.g., "The delivery day is approaching") [14,Study 5A]. However, unfortunately the authors did not test their proposed mechanism of decreased psychological arousal in this study.…”

“…In addition to extensive use of such linguistic metaphors, research has found that processing spatial information influences how people subsequently interpret temporal information, suggesting an overlap in how these concepts are represented in human cognition [2,3]. Our mental representation of the passage of time is thought to be structured by concepts of spatial motion, including an ego-moving temporal perspective in which the self is perceived as approaching future events (e.g., "we're approaching the weekend"), and a time-moving temporal perspective in which future events are perceived as approaching the self (e.g., "the weekend is approaching") [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] (see Fig 1).…”

Spice up the moment: The influence of spicy taste on people's metaphorical perspectives on time

“…For example, the understanding of the novel metaphor "negotiation is a muscle" is predicated on their shared attribute, that is, both can be perfected through practice (Jamrozik et al, 2016). Recall that the ego-moving representation puts a longer distance between the ego and the future event (i.e., choosing the deferral of the meeting to next "Friday" over the advancement of the meeting to next "Monday" when decoding the ambiguous meeting question) and as a result latest research found that adoption of the ego-moving perspective engendered a higher level of consumer impatience in a waiting situation (Xu et al, 2023). This insight, in combination with the linguistic illustrations that use spicy substitutes to indicate temporal urgency suggests that the spicy-ego-moving metaphor link may be founded on a relational affinity of keenness for action, whereby spicy-evoked temporal urgency and the resultant eagerness to move would activate the same psychological state and spatial motivation implicated in the ego-moving representation.…”