“Which is in front of today? Is it yesterday, or tomorrow?” It seems very obvious to each one of us that the answer is “the option that is regarded as being in front of us who are constantly heading and facing the future,” thus tomorrow, or, if not, “the option that is regarded as coming ahead of the present moment in the grand timeline,” thus yesterday. There are many variables that account for this divergence. In the present study, Temporal Focus, known as one of the variables playing a causal role in people’s Space-Time Mapping (or Spatial Construals of Time), was investigated as the mediator responsible for the Vertical-Collectivism’s predisposition to one branch of the divergence in the above mentioned question, the Time-Moving Perspective (i.e., the tendency to choose “yesterday”).
Keywords: Time-Moving Perspective, Temporal-Focus Theory, Vertical-Collectivism, Spatial Construals of Time, Space-Time Mapping Metaphor, Representation, Cultural Differences, Individual Differences.