第1505期:Why some people are always late

We all have one, don’t we? A friend who’s always late. The one who turns up for coffee a full half hour after the appointed time. The one who seems to be forever ‘stuck in traffic’. The dear pal who sends a message saying “Sorry, bit delayed”, when they’re already 20 minutes behind schedule. I mean, what kind of a friend is that? Or just maybe, if you’re really honest, this persistently tardy individual is actually you yourself?

我们都有一个，不是吗？一个总是迟到的朋友。那个在指定时间后整整半小时来喝咖啡的人。那个似乎永远“陷入交通堵塞”的人。亲爱的朋友，当他们已经晚了 20 分钟时，发送一条消息说“对不起，有点延迟”。我的意思是，那是什么样的朋友？或者只是也许，如果你真的很诚实，这个一直迟到的人实际上就是你自己？

Either way, if you’re on the receiving end, lateness can be extremely irritating, even infuriating. How on earth can people be so inconsiderate? 

无论哪种方式，如果您处于接收端，迟到可能会非常烦人，甚至令人愤怒。人怎么可以这么不体贴？

Well, recent research suggests that there might be more to this than simple rudeness. Psychologists from Washington University believe people perceive time differently. Their study gave participants a specific amount of time in which to complete a task, and even provided them with a clock. Despite this, some people became so engrossed in the activity that they completely lost track of time and forgot to check the clock.

好吧，最近的研究表明，这可能不仅仅是简单的粗鲁。华盛顿大学的心理学家认为，人们对时间的感知是不同的。他们的研究为参与者提供了完成任务的特定时间，甚至为他们提供了一个时钟。尽管如此，还是有一些人全神贯注于这项活动，以至于他们完全忘记了时间，忘记了看表。

According to psychologist Dr Susan Krauss Whitborne, from University of Masachussetts Amherst, this is like when we scroll through our social media feed and think only five minutes have elapsed, when in fact twenty have slipped by. Does that feel familiar? She writes in Psychology Today that those who were better at clock-checking were therefore “less reliant on their potentially flawed internal timekeeper.” So, what about the reasons beyond our faulty inner clocks?

根据马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校的心理学家 Susan Krauss Whitborne 博士的说法，这就像我们滚动浏览社交媒体并认为只过了五分钟，而实际上已经过去了二十分钟。是不是感觉很熟悉？她在《今日心理学》中写道，那些更擅长检查时钟的人因此“较少依赖于他们可能存在缺陷的内部计时员”。那么，除了我们的错误内部时钟之外的原因呢？

Well, our personality also plays a role. Laura Clarke writes for BBC Capital that the less punctual among us often share traits such as “optimism, low levels of self-control, anxiety, or a penchant for thrill-seeking”.Why optimism, you ask? Optimists tend to overestimate how much they can achieve and underestimate problems – which means they don’t account for the long traffic jam on the way to meet you for that coffee.

好吧，我们的个性也起着作用。劳拉·克拉克（Laura Clarke）为 BBC Capital 撰文称，我们当中不太守时的人通常具有“乐观、低水平的自我控制、焦虑或寻求刺激的嗜好”等特征。你问为什么要乐观？乐观主义者往往高估他们能取得多少成就而低估问题——这意味着他们没有考虑到在与你见面喝咖啡的路上长时间的交通拥堵。

Here’s another thought: maybe language is to blame? The English phrase ‘to be fashionably late’ is used to describe the optimum time to arrive at an event. If you’re too early, you can appear overly eager, but if you’re a bit late you seem cool and sophisticated. The problem is, what one person regards as fashionably late, another may view as plain impolite. So, next time you have coffee, do try to be on time.

这是另一个想法：也许是语言的罪魁祸首？英文短语“to be fashionly late”用于描述到达活动的最佳时间。如果你来得太早，你可能会显得过于渴望，但如果你来晚了，你会显得很酷和老练。问题是，一个人认为迟到是时髦的，另一个人可能会认为是完全不礼貌的。所以，下次你喝咖啡的时候，一定要准时。

词汇表

the appointed time 约好的时间
stuck in traffic 堵在路上
behind schedule 迟于约定的时间
persistently 一次又一次地
tardy 迟到的，行动缓慢的
on the receiving end 等人的那一方
infuriating 令人愤怒的
inconsiderate 不为他人着想的，不体谅别人的
perceive 看待
engrossed 全身贯注的
lose track of time 忘记时间
feed （社交媒体上的）状态更新
elapse （时间）流逝
slip by 不知不觉地流逝
timekeeper （个人）对时间的把握
punctual 守时的
a penchant for （拥有）…的嗜好，倾向
thrill-seeking 追求刺激的
overestimate 高估
to be fashionably late “约会故意迟到一会儿”，以显示自己处事老练而时髦