Moving at the Speed of Life: How Life Pace Influences Temporal Reasoning

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Moving Time metaphor and the Moving Ego metaphor are common in English speakers’ conceptualization of time. Previous research has suggested a broad range of factors influencing people’s perspectives on the movement of events in time and their concomitant interpretations of temporally ambiguous utterances. In the current study, we investigated whether the pace of life, a previously unexplored factor, influences people’s temporal reasoning at city level and individual level. Results showed that participants with a slow pace of life tended to adopt the Moving Ego perspective than participants with a fast pace of life. The current research offers a new perspective that individual differences such as the pace of life may also influence the resolution of temporally ambiguous language.