Yao Zizhan, Multhaup Kristi S, Salter Phia S
Department of Psychology, Davidson College, 209 Ridge Rd, PO Box 5000, Davidson, NC, 28035, USA.
Psychology Faculty Services, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA.
Mem Cognit. 2025 Jan 14. doi: 10.3758/s13421-024-01680-y.
Collective temporal thought includes individuals' memories of group experiences and expectations about the group's collective future. Prior studies have found inconsistent valence biases (e.g., positivity) in North American collective memory and consistently negative biases in collective future thought. Discrepancies in collective memory valence biases may be due to different question framing across studies. Moreover, a limited number of studies extend collective temporal thought research beyond Western nations and few studies examine potential age-related differences in this area. Therefore, the present study investigates valence-based biases in collective temporal thought from the perspective of question framing, culture, and participant age. Participants (N = 1,548) included younger (20-39 years) and older (60+ years) adults from the USA and mainland China. Whereas Americans' collective memory biases varied across question framings, Chinese participants consistently displayed positivity biases. The American bias patterns were specific to collective memory and did not carry over to collective future thought ratings. Chinese participants showed higher dialectical thinking than American participants and dialectical thinking positively correlated with the proportion of positive events reported. Older adults generated significantly more positive events than younger adults, more so in collective memory than in collective future thought. Overall, collective temporal thinking is influenced by question framing, cultural context, and participant age.
集体时间思维包括个体对群体经历的记忆以及对群体集体未来的期望。先前的研究发现，北美集体记忆中存在不一致的效价偏差（如积极偏差），而集体未来思维中则始终存在消极偏差。集体记忆效价偏差的差异可能是由于不同研究中的问题框架不同。此外，将集体时间思维研究扩展到西方国家以外的研究数量有限，且很少有研究考察这一领域潜在的年龄相关差异。因此，本研究从问题框架、文化和参与者年龄的角度调查集体时间思维中基于效价的偏差。参与者（N = 1548）包括来自美国和中国大陆的年轻人（20 - 39岁）和老年人（60岁以上）。美国人的集体记忆偏差因问题框架而异，而中国参与者始终表现出积极偏差。美国的偏差模式特定于集体记忆，并未延续到集体未来思维评分中。中国参与者比美国参与者表现出更高的辩证思维，且辩证思维与所报告的积极事件比例呈正相关。老年人比年轻人产生的积极事件显著更多，在集体记忆中比在集体未来思维中更是如此。总体而言，集体时间思维受到问题框架、文化背景和参与者年龄的影响。
