Looking to the Past to See the Future

Time perspective

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An important—if not the most important—reason for us to remember the past is to prepare for the future. By reflecting on our past experiences, we gain insights about who we are and learn lessons to inform our decisions and plans. This cognitive capacity of remembering the past to plan for the future is critical for survival and flourishing. Some researchers even argue that it is unique to humans.

Time perspectives across cultures

Yet, different cultures uphold different time perspectives that influence the extent to which the past is valued for informing the future. In modern Western cultures, time tends to be viewed as a linear flow from the past to the present to the future. As such, history will not repeat itself, and the past seems unimportant or even irrelevant to the present and future.

Accordingly, people are encouraged not to dwell on the past but to live in the present and focus on the future. Even in therapies where the past in frequently brought up, the focus is often on helping patients gain new perspectives on their traumatic experiences and contemplate positive outcomes (e.g., becoming more mature), so that they can move on. In other words, remembering is more about feeling good than learning lessons.

In contrast, in many Asian cultures, time is viewed as a cyclic flow that eventually returns to its original state. The past is recurrent and thus bears moral and intellectual values for future actions. As Confucius cautions, “To define the future, one must study the past.” In line with the cultural beliefs, Asian individuals and institutions alike are encouraged to critically reflect on past mistakes—both of their own and others—to learn lessons that guide their future actions.

Indeed, research has shown that compared with North Americans who think about and value the future more than the past, East Asians think about and value the past more than the future, and they are more inclined to draw insight from past experiences in decision-making. The cultural differences are further observed in children’s moral reasoning: While US children moralize their future actions more than past actions, Chinese children attribute greater moral significance to their past actions than future actions.

The socialization of time

Cultivating a time perspective

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How are the cultural beliefs related to time and the relation between the past and future passed on to children? We addressed this question by examining how parents spontaneously draw connections between the past and future when they share memories with their children, a common daily activity in the family across cultural communities.

In this study, European American, Chinese American, and Chinese mothers talked with their 3-year-olds at home about things mother and child did together, such as a trip to the science museum or amusement park. One event was emotionally positive to the child, and one was emotionally negative. Spontaneous talk about the future following the memory conversations was analyzed.

As expected, Chinese and Chinese American mothers were more likely than European American mothers to refer to the future after talking about the past. Furthermore, in the future talk following the discussion of the negative event, Chinese and Chinese American mothers frequently emphasized to children lessons learned and behavioral expectations in the future. In contrast, European American mothers tend to highlight children’s preferences and opinions regarding their future activities. Thus, routine family conversations convey to children different cultural beliefs about the past in relation to the future.

Concluding remarks

Learning from the past in preparation for the future helps us avoid the same mistakes and tragedies. It is critical for individuals’ life-long well-being as well as for the effective decision-making of institutions and governments. Different cultural views of time and the significance of the past can influence the extent to which people rely on past experiences to guide their plans and actions. These cultural views are passed on to young children through family daily activities. For a better future, a historical perspective needs to be cultivated.