Some of the differences in concept allocation are suggestive of real culture differences; for example: future is good-strong-active (Osgood’s 3-factors) for all countries (U.S.A., Japan, India, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Lebanon, Sweden, Hong Kong, Iran, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Poland) except Finnish, where it is good, but weak and passive.

Osgood (1964)

Angularity, as with a square stone, is a characteristic of the past versus roundness, the wheel, as a symbol of the future.

The modernist architecture of the last century (1930-1960) was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon a functionalist idea with an embrace of minimalism and a rejection of ornament. The use of round shapes was a style characteristic. It was a radical break with the past and a view to the future.

De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill. 1935, Architect/Designer: Mendelsohn & Chermayeff. Source: http://flickr.com/photo/53921762@N00/1986171763

In images depicting the future, futuristic planes etc. the artists show a preference for round shapes.

Artist Tim Hildebrandt painted the rounded buildings of his future city yellow. Underneath the future he draws the angular past in a roman temple architecture. The man in the foreground points to the right, where the future lies.

(Michiels, I. editorial)

Thinking about time is metaphorically grounded in knowledge about space, where past is to the left, and the future to the right. When choosing an object with the past (vs. future) in mind, a given object is more likely to be chosen when displayed on the left rather than the right.

Charles Y. Z. Zhang and Norbert Schwarz (2011)