Why Are Some People Always Late?為什么有些人總是遲到？

Sascha Pare

在日常生活中，我們偶爾會因為意外情況而遲到，但有一部分人，對他們而言，遲到是家常便飯。這種習慣性遲到，又怎么解釋呢？

Being late is a tendency that some people cannot seem toshake. Many factors contribute to 1）perpetual lateness， including timeperception， and personality.

“It is likely that theres a 2）mechanism in the brain that causessome people to be late for meetings because they underestimate thetime it will take them to get there，” said Hugo Spiers， a professor ofcognitive neuroscience at University College London. The hippocampusis a region of the brain which processes some aspects of time， such asremembering when to do something and how long it takes. Neurons inthe hippocampus acting as “time cells” contribute to our perception andmemory of events.

Crowdedness may have an impact on our time perception.In a 2022 study in the journal Virtual Reality， researchers asked3）participants to estimate the length of more or less crowded simulatedsubway trips. They found that crowded commutes felt like they took10% longer than less busy rides， which was linked to it being anunpleasant experience.

Personality also plays a role in running late. Certain personalitytraits， such as reduced conscientiousness， can cause some peopleto forget tasks that they had planned ahead of time， a professor atCampbell University in North Carolina， Waldum said. “Another factorthat may influence a persons timeliness is how prone to multitaskingthey are，” she added. People juggling several tasks atonce are less likely to remember and completeother scheduled tasks on time. “The bestlaid plans can fail simply becausewe dont have enough attentionalresources left to carry them outsuccessfully，” Waldum said.

So what can perpetually latepeople do to be 4）punctual andavoid disappointing friends and lovedones？ Setting alarms and reminders onthe phone is a good way. Another way is toset pre-event deadlines.

1） perpetual adj. 持續的

2） mechanism n. 機制

3） participant n. 參與者

4） punctual adj. 準時的

一些人總是無法改掉遲到的習慣。時間感知和個性等因素都會導致他們總是遲到。

倫敦大學學院的認知神經學教授雨果·施皮爾斯表示：“大腦中可能存在一種機制，導致一些人開會遲到，因為他們低估了到達那里所需的時間。”海馬體是大腦中的一個區域，處理著時間信息，例如記住何時做某事以及需要多長時間，海馬體中充當“時間細胞”的神經元有助于我們對事件的感知和記憶。

擁擠會影響我們的時間感知。2022 年發表于《虛擬現實》雜志上的一項研究中，研究人員要求參與者估計更擁擠或不那么擁擠的模擬地鐵行程的時長。他們發現，擁擠的通勤感覺需要的時間比不那么擁擠的行程長10%，這與其是一種不愉快的體驗有關。

個性也在遲到中起著一定的作用。北卡羅來納州坎貝爾大學教授沃爾德姆說，某些個性特征，如較低的責任心，可能會導致某些人忘記他們事先計劃好的任務?！傲硪粋€可能影響一個人守時性的因素是他們多任務的傾向。”她補充道。同時做幾件事的人更不可能記得并準時完成其他計劃好的任務。沃爾德姆說：“最好的計劃可能失敗，只是因為我們沒有足夠的注意力資源來成功地執行它們。”

那么，經常遲到的人該怎么做才能準時，避免讓朋友和親人失望呢？在手機上設置鬧鐘和提醒是一個好方式。另一種策略是設置活動前的最后期限。