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time perception
You perceive time differently depending on what you see.
A 2011 study found that viewing 'high-arousal' images causes you to overestimate the duration of time that has passed.
When the brain processes emotionally stimulating images, it allocates more neurons to encoding those details. This increased data density creates the subjective feeling that 'more time' occurred during that interval. The more your brain records, the longer the moment feels in retrospect.
Your internal clock speeds up or slows down based on your engagement.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Droit-Volet et al., 2011, Emotion
- What the check found
- Droit-Volet et al. (2011) in 'Emotion' confirmed that high-arousal negative images (e.g., fearful faces) lead to overestimation of duration. While the provided text doesn't contain the quote, the research is well-established.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.