時間觀不是通過有意識的“學習”得來的，而是在潛移默化中“習得”的。它在人們不知不覺中支配著人們的行爲。在文化接觸中，一個文化的人會本能地用自己的時間觀去與另一個文化的人交際，而且會以爲自己處理時間的方式是天經地義的、理所當然的。雙方都這樣做這樣想，一旦發現差異，就很容易把問題歸咎于對方的荒誕離奇。文化間的誤會與衝突由此而產生。
Time perspective is not learned consciously, instead, it is acquired subconsciously. Time perspective dominates our behaviors before we are aware of it. Throughout the intercultural contacts, people of a certain culture usually communicates by instinctively using his own time perspective with people of other culture and takes for granted the way he deals with the time. However, if both parties think and act in this way, once there appears the divergence, both are inclined to impute the responsibility simply to the eccentricities of one another. It is how the misunderstandings and conflicts between cultures come into being.