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Aug 09Not a trick question.
If you have a meeting scheduled on Wednesday, and said meeting is moved forward two days, when is the meeting scheduled for now?
Seriously, answer. Explanation after the jump.
If you said “Friday,” you imagine time as something you move through. If you said “Monday,” you imagine time as something that passes you by. And you will be very certain the other answer is wrong. Furthermore, the Friday folk are more likely to be angrier than the Mondays, who are more passive.
Since it’s not immediately intuitive, here’s each side’s explanation, from Andy (Friday) and myself (Monday).
Andrew/Friday: “Time happens in front of me, so moving something forward means accelerating it in the same direction that time passes.”
Martin/Monday: On a calendar or to-do list, pushing something back means it will happen later–hence, moving something forward means it’ll happen sooner.
(Bonus, typo-ridden corrected Friday response from a friend of a friend): “I don’t get it. Monday is 3 days later. What is wrong with people? Oh wait, now I am getting angry.”
Unofficial tallies have so far produced a pretty even split in responses slight edge to the angry Friday crowd, with both sides firmly convinced of their answers. Here’s the actual study:
Researchers presented 87 students with a computer screen flat on a desk, facing the ceiling. On it were the days of the week, in a vertical line with Saturday at the top, then Friday, Thursday, all the way down to Sunday at the bottom, nearest the participant. Commands were given that either provoked thoughts about moving through time, away from the participant (e.g. a meeting has moved forward two days from Sunday to Wednesday – please highlight the new day on the screen), or thoughts about time moving towards the participant (e.g. a shift down the screen, towards the participant from Wednesday to Sunday). Participants primed to think about their movement through time subsequently rated themselves as feeling angrier than participants in the “time moving towards them” condition.
Leave yrs in the comments.
HT: Boing Boing
August 13th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Oh, Monday, for sure. This makes sense because i do generally adopt a more passive view of events. On the other hand, you’ve seen me get angry.