CULTURED MINDS
An Investigation of How Culture Affects Decision Making
TIME PERCEPTION
“perception of time is a part of an individual's culture and, like other parts of culture, it has an important influence on the individual's world view and subsequent behaviour.”
Time perspective across cultures are very important to understand. They give the reader a global perspective on the rational model of consumer behaviour (which has an implicit linear perception of time built into it). Different time perceptions will have different results for all stages of the consumer decision making model. (Graham,1981).
According to some measures, time is the most frequent noun in the English language (Boroditsky, 2011). Because it is not a concrete object, we use space to represent through artefacts such as calendars or vocabulary. For example, in English ‘don’t worry, your troubles are behind you’ means your troubles are in the past. However, people differ in their way of conceptualising time: the Aymara would say ‘don’t worry, your troubles are in front of you’: they conceptualise the future as behind and past as in front.
Although a substantive amount of research concerning time perception has come from anthropology (Gell 1992), the following 3 classes of time perception might be more useful to practitioners. Researchers have found strong links between these categories and the cultural dimensions of uncertainty avoidance and regulatory focus.
Linear-Time (Future-oriented)
Time is a road stretching from past to future that one progresses along. People can make a choice about how to allocate/divide their time amongst different tasks; they can spend it, save it, waste it… the same metaphors one uses with money are often applicable to time. This model is very future weighted, often “activities are not seen as ends in themselves, but rather means to ends, the attainment of which lies somewhere in the future.” (Graham, 1981) Example: USA, UK
Circular-Time (Present-oriented)
Time doesn’t stretch into a new future, instead it cycles (e.g seasons, moon). Because the future offers no particular promise, it is less intensely anticipated/feared than with the Linear Time orientation. So the present has greater priority. Circular Time is harder to equate with money because it cannot be segmented or allocated on whim. Example: Mexico, China
Procedural-Time (Task oriented)
It is more important that an activity is done correctly, following the right procedure, rather than done "on time." Time and money are completely different concepts. “There is no beginning or end of [procedural] time, only unfolding moments and ongoing transformations “(Chia, 2010; Gupta, 1992) Example: Native American tribes, people on holiday
These 3 views are sometimes further condensed into a two-way categorisation of ‘clock time’ which regards time as a unitary measure of events, activities, or tasks and ‘process time’ which regards time as residing within the event, activity, or task (Reinecke & Ansari, 2015).
Note that, as with different cultural mindsets, a person has the ability to operate within a variety of different time perceptions. For example, someone may use the Linear ‘clock-time’ orientation for social meetings and business affairs, then switch to the Procedural ‘process-time’ model when pursuing a hobby or on vacation.