Is the future ahead or behind? How emotions influence the perception of front − back temporal orientation

The perception of temporal front − back orientation is critically important in human cognition; however, emotions’ specific influence on this perception remains unclear. In this study, two experiments, namely, the task of classifying time concept and task of starting search, were conducted to investigate how emotions affect the perception of orientation before and after time. Sixty Chinese subjects were recruited for each experiment, and happy and sad emotions were induced in the subjects by recalling and imagining emotions. The results revealed that participants in the positive emotion group showed no significant preference for any spatiotemporal metaphor mapping, while those in the negative emotion group demonstrated a marked preference for the “past-in-front, future-behind” spatiotemporal metaphor mapping, indicating a tendency to perceive the future as behind them. In addition, in the happy mood, starting the concept of future time stimulates the attention bias to the front position, while starting the concept of past time makes individuals pay more attention to the back position. Under the sad mood, starting the concept of future time stimulates the attention bias to the back position. This study provides empirical evidence and insights into the influence of negative emotions on the perception of temporal orientation and its cognitive characteristics, with potential applications in behavioral interventions and psychological therapies related to temporal cognition.