It is practically impossible not to think about life before the pandemic. For many people it is as if it were yesterday, even though a year has passed. For others, on the other hand, remembering life before the pandemic is something very distant, almost from another time. Why are the perception different in each person? Has the pandemic changed our perception of time?
Scientifically, time is quite accurate. In fact, it takes our planet 23.9 hours to make a rotation on its axis. But this is not how we understand time, as we often feel that it passes too slowly or too fast. This is because our emotional state plays a fundamental role in our perception of time. Thus, numerous investigations conclude that, for people with a negative emotional state, time seems to pass much slower. On the other hand, to people with a positive emotional state, time seems to pass much faster.
For this reason, in the first weeks of the pandemic, when we had to confine ourselves at home and our lives changed completely, it was not strange to assume that we would feel a roller coaster of emotions. So much so that COVID 19 not only altered our lives, but also our sense of time.
Differences in perception of time
As Professor Gable details for The Conversation , when we enjoy ourselves (during a trip or in a meeting with friends) time seems to fly by. On the other hand, when we are sad, angry, nervous or scared, time seems to stop. In fact, some people who have suffered a traumatic event or a car accident report that it lived in slow motion. This is because emotion and motivation are intertwined.
Emotion forces us to act in a certain way, either hiding if we are scared or concentrating on an activity that we are passionate about. The first is called ‘avoidance motivation’, while the second is known as ‘approach motivation’. Thus, a team of researchers from the University of Delaware (United States) has been able to conclude that the approach motivation makes our sense of time accelerate, while the avoidance motivation slows it down.
This is because, when we are enjoying an activity or determined to do a specific task, we have a goal in mind. In this way, speeding up or slowing down time contributes to achieving those goals, because when time passes faster people find it less difficult to pursue a long-term goal.
