Time conceptualization across cultures and religions

Abstract

In the present doctoral dissertation we examined, through six empirical studies, how people from different cultures (American, Spanish, Serbian, Bosniak, Croatian, Moroccan, Turkish, and Chinese) and religions or religious attitudes (mainly Christian, Muslim, and non-believers) think about time. In particular, we studied the role of temporal focus (i.e., attention paid to the past versus the future) and religiosity —factors that vary cross-culturally— on five dimensions of temporal thought: where we place the past and future, whether in front or behind (spatialization); the distance we perceive to past and future events; the similarity of our current self to our past- and future- self (selfcontinuity); the economic valuation of past and future events (discounting); and how far we place the horizon when contemplating the past and future (depth).