Introduction

Lakoff and Johnson, in 1980, suggested that the concept of time demonstrates a key strategy of the human mind: the use of concrete concepts to understand and think about abstract domains (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Pinker, 2007; Boroditsky, 2000). After this time, research on how we think and compare this domain has been on the rise. The use of spatial concepts to talk about this phenomenon is present in a variety of anthropological, ethnographic and linguistic analyzes (Pinker, 2007), with the purpose of understanding the plasticity of the human mind in the understanding of this phenomenon and what the bases that originate this plasticity (NĂșnez & Cooperrider)
Decisions involving different costs and benefits between two distinct moments are quite important. Such decisions not only affect our well-being, health and happiness, but also determine the prosperity of each country (Frederick et al., 2002).
As the economic value is affected by the temporal distance is an issue quite investigated in economics and psychology (Takahashi et al., 2008). This phenomenon of temporal discount, or delay discounting was first described by Samuelsen in 1937 (Klapproth, 2008). In this line of research two economic choices are usually presented, varying in their value and their temporal distance, an immediate choice that contains a smaller value while the late choice presents a greater economic value, but with a delay (Frederick and Loewenstein, 2002).
The way people analyze these decisions have a huge practical relevance. Many of our day-to-day decisions are intertemporal, even if we do not have this perception about them. Decide whether to save or spend money, eat a cake or diet, or drink a beer or so are small examples separating immediate rewards and future rewards and that are part of our decision-making (Wittmann and Paulus, 2008).