Event valence and spatial metaphors of time

Abstract

Recent research suggests that people's understanding of the abstract domain of time is dependent on the more concrete domain of space. Boroditsky and Ramscar (2002) found that spatial context influences whether people see themselves as moving through time (ego-moving perspective) or as time moving towards them (time-moving perspective). Based on studies of the embodiment of affective experience, we examined whether affect might also influence which spatial metaphor of time people adopt. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed that participants who imagined a negative event were more likely to report that the event was approaching them, whereas those who imagined a positive event were more likely to report that they were approaching the event. Experiments 3a and 3b showed that participants judge an event to be more positive if it is described from the ego-moving perspective than if it is described from the time-moving perspective. Results from these studies provide initial evidence that positive and negative events are associated with different spatial metaphors of time.

Acknowledgements

The research was conducted as part of the first author's Masters thesis at the University of Richmond and was supported by a grant from the University of Richmond School of Arts and Sciences Graduate Research Committee.

We thank Scott Allison, Daphna Eylon and Jeff Larsen for their helpful comments.

Notes

¹We thank an anonymous reviewer for suggesting this point.

²We thank an anonymous reviewer for suggesting this point.