Department of Experimental Psychology, Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Campus de Cartuja s/n, 181071, Granada, Spain.
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Banja Luka, Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2020 Dec;27(6):1247-1258. doi: 10.3758/s13423-020-01760-5.
The temporal focus hypothesis (TFH) proposes that whether the past or the future is conceptualized as being located in front depends on temporal focus: the balance of attention paid to the past (tradition) and the future (progress). How general is the TFH, and to what extent can cultures and subcultures be placed on a single line relating time spatialization and temporal focus in spite of stark differences in language, religion, history, and economic development? Data from 10 Western (sub)cultural groups (N = 1198,) were used to derive a linear model relating aggregated temporal focus and proportion of future-in-front responses. This model then successfully fitted 10 independently collected (sub)cultural groups in China and Vietnam (N = 899). Further analysis of the whole data set (N = 2,097) showed that the group-level relation arose at the individual level and allowed precise quantification of its influence. Finally, in an effort to apply the model to all relevant published data sets, we included recent data from Britain and South Africa: The former, but not the latter, fitted the model well. Temporal focus is a central factor that shapes how people around the world think of time in spatial terms.
时间焦点假说（TFH）提出，过去和未来在概念上是位于前方还是后方，取决于时间焦点：对过去（传统）和未来（进步）的关注程度的平衡。TFH 的普遍性如何，以及尽管语言、宗教、历史和经济发展存在明显差异，文化和亚文化群体在将时间空间化和时间焦点联系起来的单一线上可以被放置到什么程度？该研究使用来自 10 个西方（亚）文化群体的数据（N=1198），得出了一个与聚合的时间焦点和未来在前的反应比例相关的线性模型。然后，该模型成功地拟合了来自中国和越南的 10 个独立收集的（亚）文化群体的数据（N=899）。对整个数据集（N=2097）的进一步分析表明，群体层面的关系出现在个体层面，并能够精确量化其影响。最后，为了将该模型应用于所有相关的已发表数据集，我们纳入了来自英国和南非的最新数据：前者，但不是后者，很好地拟合了该模型。时间焦点是塑造世界各地的人如何以空间术语思考时间的一个核心因素。
