Time perspective manifests in words – specifically, verbs in the past tense (e.g., “the experience was great”), the present tense (e.g., “the experience is great”), or the future tense (e.g., “the experience will be great”).
There is research that considers whether this linguistic shift in time perspective impacts how people interpret the message. The University of Toronto study "Time perspective and helpfulness: Are communicators more persuasive in the past, present, or future tense?" in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 110, January 2024, 104544, asserts that any message specially the online reviews articulated in the present tense holds greater persuasive power compared to other forms.
Researchers says that's because the present tense makes a message seem more specific and concrete, which helps audiences better visualize its meaning and feel psychologically closer to the author.
"The more vivid something is, the more real and true it seems", says Sam Maglio, co-author of the study and professor of marketing and psychology at U of T Scarborough. "The past and the future aren't as vivid as the present. In the present tense, you as the reader take a journey with the speaker and you become immersed. We are experiencing it together".
Maglio, along with David Fang, a U of T alumnus, examined millions of Amazon reviews to determine the impact of verb tense on helpfulness ratings. They found that reviews written in the present tense received significantly more upvotes than those written in the past or future tense.
This trend persisted even when considering other factors such as pictures, review length, and star ratings. Additionally, when hundreds of participants were asked to rate reviews, they consistently favored those written in the present tense.
But researchers found a catch when studying live participants. They had about 500 people rate reviews by helpfulness and told them the reviewers were either relatively nearby (within Canada) or on the other side of the world (in Australia). The reviews written in Canada showed that present tense verbs boosted people's perception of helpfulness, while the Australian reviews showed verb tense made little difference.
"Reviews are maximally helpful when they are right here and they're right now because the closer the reader can come to seeing it, touching it, making it palpable, the more they believe it and the more they trust it", says Maglio, who is cross-appointed to the Rotman School of Management. "It's hard to be immersive and vivid and visceral from a world away".
The impact went beyond website comment sections. The researchers showed about 400 people a pitch asking for donations to a charity that was written in past, present or future tense, and told them they were entered in a lottery with a $50 payout. When asked what percentage of their winnings they'd give to the charity, the study participants donated about 28% when the proposal was written in future or past tenses. With just a few words switched to present, the figure jumped to about 38%. (The researchers then actually donated those percentages to the non-profit Helping Hands).
The study joins a growing body of research that finds communicating about the world in concrete ways makes us seem more believable to audiences. Just as using "the active voice" has become a ubiquitous piece of writing advice, Maglio hopes the present tense will one day become common knowledge.
TikTok removed the hashtag #lettertoamerica from their search function after videos about Osama bin Laden’s 2002 “Letter to America” went viral on the platform and were re-uploaded to the social media platform X.
Some social media users suggested that the Al Qaeda founder’s document gives an alternative perspective about the US’ involvement in conflicts in the Middle East.
Throughout the week, TikTok users had been sharing the link to The Guardian’s transcript of Osama's letter, which was written about a year after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and which killed nearly 3,000 people in the US. The Guardian took the letter down from their website Wednesday.
In the letter, Osama addressed the American people and sought to answer the following questions: “Why are we fighting and opposing you?” and “What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?”
The letter condemns US support for Israel and accuses Americans of aiding the oppression of Palestinian people as well as denouncing US interventions in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Lebanon.
People online have used Osama's words as a springboard for discussion about American foreign policy in the Middle East. Many have said it caused them to re-evaluate their beliefs around the US wars of intervention. Still, while people were critical of US involvement in global conflicts, many clarified that they were not praising or defending Osama's orchestration of the 9/11 attacks.
It has been claimed that references to Osama bin Laden on X jumped more than 4,300%, from Tuesday to Thursday, from just over 5,000 to more than 230,000. References to “Letter to America” jumped more than 1,800%, from just over 4,800 to 100,000, with 719 million impressions across the platform.
On YouTube, searches for Osama also jumped 400% from Tuesday to Thursday, according to Google Trends. Instagram’s autosuggest function in search assisted users in finding “Letter to America”, listing it as a “popular search”.
I saw this Facebook post by Morgan on "Understanding China" three days ago.
"China should give her more tender love.
She's been behaving like an insecure bitch". 😂😂😂
