The temporal focus hypothesis (TFH) entails that individuals who value the past tend to conceptualize it in front, whereas individuals who value the future tend to map the future in front instead (de la Fuente et al., 2014). This varies as a function of culture, individual differences, and context. Here, we extend this line of inquiry by testing a contextual variable, namely COVID‐19 quarantine status, and an individual differences variable, namely future precautionary behavior towards COVID‐19. Contrary to what the TFH would predict, we show that participants map the future to a frontal position, regardless of individual attitudes and quarantine status. However, participants who displayed more future precautionary behavior were also more future‐focused than participants who displayed less such behaviour, but this did not predict their front–back mappings of the future. These findings suggest that individual differences may be stronger determinants of temporal focus than contextual variables.

中文翻译：

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与新冠病毒相关的隔离和态度对时间概念化的影响：来自时间焦点和隐式时空映射的证据

时间焦点假说（TFH）意味着重视过去的个体倾向于在前面概念化它，而重视未来的个体则倾向于在前面规划未来（de la Fuente et al., 2014）。这随文化、个体差异和背景而变化。在这里，我们通过测试上下文变量（即 COVID-19 隔离状态）和个体差异变量（即未来对 COVID-19 的预防行为）来扩展这一调查范围。与 TFH 的预测相反，我们表明参与者将未来描绘在正面位置，无论个人态度和隔离状态如何。然而，表现出更多未来预防行为的参与者也比表现出较少此类行为的参与者更关注未来，但这并不能预测他们对未来的前后映射。这些发现表明，个体差异可能比情境变量更能成为时间焦点的决定因素。