“Everyone is unique.” We’ve all heard this feel-good mantra, and recognise those little details that shape the ways in which, we think, feel and speak, all of which indeed do make us unique. However when considering our individuality a little more deeply, we may come across certain ideas which shift our understanding of all human beings more profoundly. We start to realise that not all of us may be even perceiving the world in the same way, and realise our own perceptions might not always be reliable or even accurate at all. But perhaps the most significant victim of our shaky judgement, and particularly notable during these past few months of lockdown has been Time.
How often have you been trapped in a drudgingly mind-numbing situation and felt as if you were stuck there for days? Perhaps you were enjoying a day out with a group of friends and felt that time had flown by? These varying experiences of time are examples of what psychologists call cognitive deception, and have been studied by experts for many years. But why is this the case? Why is it that our minds can experience the same amount of time for seemingly vastly different durations?
According to the best science we have, Time is more precarious than any of us might truly appreciate, with conflicting theories as to why we all feel it go by differently.
The Effect of Emotions
One of the most prominent ideas surrounding our experience of time and the earliest experiments on human perception focused on the crucial role that our emotions have on how we perceive time to have passed.
When indulging in pastimes that make us happy, we often feel time has passed by faster. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first devised the idea of “flow”, which is experienced when one is fully engrossed in an enjoyable activity (sports, creative endeavours, or work) and shuts out all distractions. An integral aspect of being “in the flow” is a warped sense of time, and feeling that time has flown by. Furthermore, when one works towards one’s owns passions or pursues one’s desire for a positive outcome or an essential resource (food or water), time appears to have moved faster. Again, the sense of time moving faster occurs because our mind only focuses on the one, desirable goal, and ignores any irrelevant thoughts or feelings.
The most intensively explored emotion on the impact of time perception is fear, because it has the most significant impact on perception and memory. In regards to time judgement, anything that humans identify as threatening makes time feel longer. This is most famously illustrated in an experiment conducted by David Eagleman, a neuroscientist who made participants ride a roller-coaster with a 15-story drop and timed it. He later asked the participants to approximate the duration of the fall and found that most answers were overestimated. Why do our brains stretch time in frightening situations? Fear distorts our perception of time so our fight or flight response is activated at the right moment in case of danger.
The Oddball Effect
Although the famous saying, “Time flies when you’re having fun”, may seem to be substantiated by ideas in psychology such as flow, in a phenomenon known as the oddball effect we actually see the exact opposite occur, where time feels longer to us when we’re having fun, and shorter when we’re stuck in monotonous or tedious situations.
The oddball effect was first illustrated in a 2004 experiment conducted by psychologist Peter Ulric Tse, when he showed participants a flashing image of the same shoe followed by a novel stimulus of a flower. The images stayed on screen for the same duration, yet most participants believed the image of the flower was shown for longer. The reason behind this prolonged period of time was because the participants were given an entirely new image to process. When we are presented with unfamiliar information, our brain also takes time to fully comprehend it, which is why travelling, playing with friends, or anything that is fun and remotely exposes your brain to an unfamiliar scenario can be perceived as a longer duration of time. This theory also explains why it feels as though our childhood would last forever, because as a child you are discovering many new ideas very quickly. On the other hand, in late-adolescence and adulthood we are often subjected to innumerable amounts of stress and doldrums, which is why we often feel our time fly by.
There are many factors which play a role in the way we perceive the passage of time, a lot of which haven’t been fully explored yet. Even the best experts disagree about the mechanism through which we experience time, and by now given all this contradiction and a little introspection you might be questioning your sense of perception altogether. But the sentiment I want to leave you with is this: Don’t worry if you feel like you’re running out of time– you’ve just been practicing a routine. Don’t worry if you feel like you’ve been stuck like this forever– you’ve just been productive. And don’t get too hung up on the existential dread of it all– there’s no reason to be. Precarious perceptions of time are a part of life for all of us, and the last thing we need in doubtful times… is doubt.
The Candid Contrarian 