Video: The Secret Powers of Time

(B1), B2, C1, C2

Philip Zimbardo  is a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. In this talk from the RSA site, he describes how our different perspectives of time influence our personalities, our relationships, and our actions. The talk is illustrated by a cartoonist, who reproduces the key points with pictures and text. Video time: 10 minutes 9 seconds. Activity time: 20 minutes to 1 hour.


Task:  1 Look at the illustration above. What kind of people do you think live in past, present or future time zones? How is their behaviour different? Do you think we live in different time zones at different ages?

2 Watch the video to see how Philip Zimbardo answers the questions in 1. Pause the video where necessary  to look at the illustrations and relate them to what the speaker has just said.

Go to the video here.