ACCLAIM FOR A Geography of Time “An elegant gem … Levine takes us behind the lens of the sensitive observer’s eye to make us aware of the psychology of time as perhaps the greatest of human inventions. He combines brilliant observations, original field experiments, and wide-ranging scholarship to generate an original view of how subjective time and human functioning mesh or collide. A Geography of Time is a worthwhile detour: take it and value its lessons well.” — Philip Zimbardo, author of Psychology and Life “What a timely book! An empirically trained social psychologist casts an informed eye across the cross-cultural literature on how people in various parts of the globe structure their 24 hours each day. The ‘silent language’ of time is articulated in this pacey, humorous assessment of how this basic dimension of our lives affects us all. Scholarly but fun, informative but colorful. Take time to read this book.” — Michael Harris Bond, Chinese University of Hong Kong “Our treatment of time turns out to be a masterful key that opens a fantastic array of doors into numerous intellectual, social, cultural, and many other-worldly areas.” — Amitai Etzioni, author of The New Golden Rule “Anyone who picks up this book believing that time is simply something that is measured by that little gadget on your wrist is in for a major revelation and a mind-expanding experience (as well as a good ‘time.’) Levine is to be congratu- lated; truly, an excellent piece of work.” — Elliott Aronson, University of California at Santa Cruz “Unique, wry, and readable, this well-documented book is recommended for social psychology collections and public libraries for sophisticated readers with the time to spare.” — Library Journal “Levine shows with grace, wit, and scholarship how culture-bound our sense of time really is. A Geography of Time has altered (for the better) my own attitude toward time. This book should make a major contribution to breaking the shack- les of time pressure that bind us all.” — Ralph Keyes, author of Timelock “Packed with interesting observations and information.” — Anthony Storr, Washington Times ABOUT THE AUTHOR Robert Levine, Ph.D., is former Associate Dean, College of Science and Mathematics, and Professor of Psychology at California State University, Fresno, where he has received many awards for his teaching and research. He has been a visiting professor at Universidade Federal Fluminense in Niteroi, Brazil, at Sapporo Medical University in Japan, and at Stockholm University in Sweden. He has published articles in Psychology Today, Discover, The New York Times, and American Scientist, and has appeared on ABC’s World News Tonight, Dateline, NBC, CNN, The Discovery Channel, and All Things Considered. He is also the editor, with Aroldo Rodrigues, of Reflections On 100 Years Of Experimental Social Psychology. His latest book, The Power of Persuasion, is also published by Oneworld. AGEOGRAPHY OF TIME The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, or How Every Culture Keeps Time Just a Little Bit Differently Robert Levine A Oneworld Book Published by Oneworld Publications 2006 First published in the United States of America by Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group Copyright © Robert Levine 1997, 2006 All rights reserved Copyright under the Berne Convention A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library ISBN-13: 978-1-85168-465-6 ISBN-10: 1-85168-465-4 Cover design by Mungo Designs Printed and bound by WS Bookwell, Finland Oneworld Publications 185 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7AR England www.oneworld-publications.com GeoTime.FM 12/7/05 11:57 AM Page v For Trudi, Andy and, of course, Mr. Zach GeoTime.FM 12/7/05 11:57 AM Page vii CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Preface: Time Talks, With an Accent xi PART I Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture 1 Tempo: The Speed of Life 3 2 Duration: The Psychological Clock 26 3 A Brief History of Clock Time 51 4 Living on Event Time 81 5 Time and Power: The Rules of the Waiting Game 101 PART II Fast, Slow, and the Quality of Life 6 Where Is Life Fastest? 129 7 Health, Wealth, Happiness, and Charity 153 8 Japan’s Contradiction 169 vii GeoTime.FM 12/7/05 11:57 AM Page viii PART III Changing Pace 9 Time Literacy: Learning the Silent Language 187 10 Minding Your Time, Timing Your Mind 207 Notes 225 Index 247 viii CONTENTS GeoTime.FM 12/7/05 11:57 AM Page ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS have been surrounded by so many helpful and knowledgeable I students, colleagues, and friends that it is difficult to know where my ideas begin and where theirs leave off. Let me single out a few of these people for special thanks. I am indebted to the following for generously providing insights and stories used in this book: Neil Altman, Stephen Buggie, Kris Eyssell, Alex Gonzalez, Eric Hickey, James Jones, the late William Kir-Stimon, Shirley Kirsten, Todd Martinez, Kuni Miyake, Salvatore Niyonzima, Harry Reis, Suguru Sato, Jean Traore, Fred Turk, and Jyoti Verma. Here at my university, Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, Jean Ritter, Aroldo Ro- drigues, and Lynnette Zelezny have been indispensable sources of information and support. Among many other helpful colleagues, I would like to thank Rick Block, Richard Brislin (whose teachings were the inspiration for chapter 9), Edward Diener and Harry Triandis for their teachings about the subjects of time and/or cul- ture, and their willingness to respond to my many requests for data and information. I cannot say enough about the constant sup- port of Phil Zimbardo—he is not only social psychology’s most in- spiring teacher, but perhaps its greatest mensch. I thank Suguru Sato and Yoshio Sugiyama at Sapporo Medical University, Lars Nystedt and Anna and Hannes Eisler at Stockholm University, and ix GeoTime.FM 12/7/05 11:57 AM Page x the administration at Universidade Federal Fluminense in Brazil for making my residencies at their universities such successful ex- periences; these adventures are at the heart of this book. I thank Ellen Wolff who began me on this project many years ago. My wife, Trudi Thom, consulted on many aspects of this project, and has al- ways been there when I needed her. Alex Gonzalez, my colleague, boss, and fellow time traveler, has been a font of guidance and support during many incarnations of my research program. My colleague Connie Jones, who has read every word of this manu- script, has been an invaluable surrogate editor and all-around source of sustenance. Tom Breen, as always, has been just plain special. I am indebted to the following people for their help in collect- ing and/or analyzing data in one or more cities in the United States or other countries: Timothy Baker, Laura Barton, Karen Bassoni, Stephen Buggie, Brigette Chua, Andy Chuang, Holly Clark, Lori Conover, John Evans, Kris Eyssell, David Hennessey, Kim Khoo, Robert Lautner, Marta Lee, Royce Lee, Andy Levine, Martin Lucia, Thom Ludwig, Allen Miller, Michiko Moriyama, Walter Murphy, Carlos Navarette, Julie Parravano, Karen Philbrick, Harry Reis, Aroldo Rodrigues, Michelle St. Peters, Anne Sluis, Kerry Sorenson, David Tan, Jyoti Verma, Karen Villerama, Sachiko Watanabe and Laurie West. Thanks to Philip Halpern for his technical input. Gary Brase, Karen Lynch, Todd Martinez, Kuni Miyake and Ara Norenzayan have played particularly pivotal roles in these studies, and I thank them all for their assistance and inspiration. My agent, Kris Dahl, opened up doors that I didn’t know ex- isted. Elizabeth Kaplan came up with the winning title. Gail Win- ston, my editor at Basic Books, has been perfect. Her patient, positive, expert guidance has helped me hone a series of chapters into the semblance of a book. I have been fortunate to work with her. x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS GeoTime.FM 12/7/05 11:57 AM Page xi PREFACE TIME TALKS, WITH AN ACCENT Every culture has its own unique set of temporal fin- gerprints. To know a people is to know the time val- ues they live by. JEREMY RIFKIN, Time Wars ime has intrigued me for as long as I remember. Like most Tyoung Americans, I was initially taught that time is simply measured by a clock—in seconds and minutes, hours and days, months and years. But when I looked around at my elders, the numbers never seemed to add up the same way twice. Why was it, I wondered, that some adults appeared to be perpetually run- ning out of daylight hours while others seemed to have all the time in the world? I thought of this second group of people—the ones who would go to the movies in the middle of the workday or take their families on six-month sabbaticals to the South Pacific—as temporal millionaires, and I vowed to become one of them. When planning my career, I ignored my peers’ unwavering con- cern with the amount of money a job would pay and tuned in in- stead to the temporal lifestyle it offered. To what extent would I be xi GeoTime.FM 12/7/05 11:57 AM Page xii able to set my own pace: How much control would I have over my time? Could I take a bike ride during the day? Thoreau spoke to me when he observed, “To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.” I chose a profession—that of a university profes- sor—which offers the temporal mobility I sought. And to my good fortune, I encountered a specialty—social psychology—that has al- lowed me to pursue the very concept of time that fascinated me as a child.