Publications
Publication details [#422]
Kim, B. Kiu, Gal Zauberman and James R. Bettman. 2012. Space, Time, and Intertemporal Preferences. Journal of Consumer Research 39 (4) : 867–880. 14 pp. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
Place, Publisher
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press
Abstract
Subjective perceptions of future time and duration have been shown to have a strong influence on consumers' decision making processes in a wide range of sectors, in particular as far as intertemporal decisions based on consideration of present vs. future outcomes (immediate vs. delayed consumption) are concerned. The authors present six studies designed to investigate whether spatial distance information can directly act upon subjective judgments of future time on the basis of a TIME IS SPATIAL DISTANCE metaphor and the related conceptual mapping between TIME and SPACE. The results show that consideration of spatial distance actually influences judgments of future time, and provide further evidence in favour of the correlation between subjective judgment and intertemporal decisions. The paper thus introduces a novel factor that can be exploited to act upon consumers' intertemporal preferences without affecting the value of goods/outcomes per se.