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'.
我们每个人都有一个这样的朋友，总是迟到，是吧？这个人过了约咖啡整整半个小时的时间才出现，而且似乎老会 “遇到堵车”。

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?
当这位友人已经错过约会时间20分钟了，才发个信息说：“不好意思，有点事儿，晚点儿到。”所以，这样的朋友到底是什么样子呢？

Or just maybe, if you're really honest, this persistently tardy individual is actually you yourself?
如果你诚实点儿，或许，这位次次行动慢半拍的友人就是你自己哟！

Either way, if you're on the receiving end, lateness can be extremely irritating, even infuriating. How on earth can people be so inconsiderate?
无论如何，如果你是那个在等待的人，迟到可能令你极其愤怒，甚至怒不可遏。既然如此，人们究竟为什么如此不体谅别人呢？

Well, recent research suggests that there might be more to this than simple rudeness.
最近的研究表明，也许除了认为这个人行事粗鲁不礼貌外，似乎另有隐情。

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.
华盛顿大学心理学家认为，这是因为人们对时间持有的观念不同。他们给参与研究者设置一定的时间，让他们完成一项任务，甚至还给他们提供了时钟。

Despite this, some people became so engrossed in the activity that they completely lost track of time and forgot to check the clock.
尽管这样，但有些人是那么地全神贯注，完全忘却了时间限制，并且都不记得核对时间了。

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?
据马萨诸塞阿默斯特大学的心理学家苏珊·克劳斯·怀特本德博士介绍，这种情况就像我们在刷朋友圈，以为只用了五分钟的时间，而实际上已经过去了20分钟一个道理。这种情形熟悉吧？

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?
苏珊博士在《今日心理学》中这样写道，那些擅长把握时间的人，“很少会依赖他们自身潜在的对时间把握的感觉。”。所以，是什么原因超越了我们出错的内在生物钟呢？

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".
是这样的，我们个人也扮演了一个角色。劳拉·克拉克为BBC Capital这样写道, 我们中缺乏准时的人经常有这些特质，例如：乐观、自控水平低、焦虑、或者有寻求激情的嗜好。

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.
或许你会问，为什么是乐观的人呢？原因是乐观的人倾向于不在乎得失多少，轻视难题，那就是说，他们不在乎与你约咖啡在路上堵车堵了多长时间。

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.
还有一种观点是：也许语言上是种责备语气吧？英语中这句“流行迟到”经常被认为是在一件事上，时间是弹性的。

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.
如果到的太早，可能显得你太着急了，但是如果迟到了一点儿，反而觉得有点酷而且老道。问题是一个人会持有流行迟到这种观点，而另一个人可能认为这样太不礼貌。

So, next time you have coffee, do try to be on time.
因此，下次和盆友约咖啡，尽量准时喽！