The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way people perceive the passage of time, according to an article published in the journal The progress of science.
At the end of the first month of social distancing, in May 2020, most survey participants (65%) reported feeling slower. The researchers classified this perception as “time extension” and found that it was associated with feelings of loneliness and lack of positive experiences during the period.
An even larger proportion (75%) reported feeling less “time pressure” when the clock seems to go faster, giving less time for daily tasks and leisure. The vast majority of interviewees (90%) said that they had shelter in the home during the period.
“We followed the volunteers for five months to see if this ‘snapshot’ of the onset of the pandemic would change over time. We found that the sense of time expansion diminished as the weeks went by, but we did not detect significant differences in terms of time pressure, “André Cravo, the first author of the article, told Agência FAPESP. Cravo is a professor at the Federal University of ABC in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.
The survey began on May 6, when 3,855 volunteers recruited via social media answered a ten-item online questionnaire and completed a simple task designed to measure their ability to estimate short intervals (by pressing the start and stop buttons of 1, 3 and 12 seconds). They were then asked about their routine in the previous week (whether they had performed all the necessary tasks and how much time they had spent on leisure) and how they were feeling now (happy, sad, lonely, etc.).
“They were invited to return each week for additional sessions, but not everyone did,” Cravo said. “In the final analysis, we considered data for 900 participants who answered the questionnaire for at least four weeks, though not all consecutively.”
Using time-consciousness scales from 0 to 100, which are standard for this type of study, the researchers analyzed the responses and calculated the two parameters – time extension and time pressure – to see if they increased or decreased week by week.
“In addition to an increase or decrease in weight, we also analyzed the factors that came with the changes. During the five-month period, we observed a similar pattern: In weeks where participants reported feeling lonely and experiencing less positive impact “They also felt time. Going slower. In very stressful situations, they felt that time went faster,” Cravo said.
When the first set of answers to the question of the passage of time was compared with the second, given at the end of the first month of imprisonment, the perception of time extension had risen 20 points, while the time pressure had fallen 30 points, according to Raymundo Machado, a researcher at the Brain Institute at the Albert Einstein Jewish Hospital (HIAE) in São Paulo, and last author of the article. “However, these results are obviously affected by memory bias because no measurements were made before the pandemic,” he said.
Time passed most slowly for younger participants early in the pandemic, where compliance with social distance rules was strictest. Apart from age, demographic factors such as household size, occupation, and gender had no effect on outcomes.
For the authors, this may be an effect of the sample profile. Most of the volunteers (80.5%) lived in the south-eastern region. A large majority were women (74.32%). Most had completed high school, and very many even had a university degree (71.78%). In terms of income, about one third was the upper middle class (33.08%). Large minorities worked in education (19.43%) and health care (15.36%).
“This is typical of online surveys, where the majority are women living in the Southeast with high levels of formal education. The impact on demographics could have been more pronounced if the sample had represented the Brazilian population better,” Machado said. .
INTERNAL CLOCK
Although the pandemic changed the participants’ perception of the passage of time, it did not seem to affect their ability to sense duration, measured by pressing the button. “All of us are able to estimate short intervals. When the results of this time estimation test [including overestimation and underestimation of the intervals] was compared to the time awareness scores, there was no correlation, “Machado said.
According to Cravo, evidence from the scientific literature suggests that the sense that time passes slower or faster is primarily influenced by two factors: the relevance of time in a particular context and unpredictability. “For example, if you arrive late for work [so that time is relevant in the context] and have to wait for a bus [unpredictable timing], you have an extreme perception that the minutes do not go. When you are on holiday and having fun, time is not relevant and seems to fly, “he said.
Perceptions often change when we remember past situations. “When you remember what you did during a holiday, time seems to have lasted longer. On the contrary, when you stand in line, time goes by way too slowly, but when you remember the situation some time later, it feels as if it was quickly over, “Cravo said.
In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is unknown how people will remember the passage of time during the period of social distancing. “Several time milestones, such as carnival, June festivals and birthdays, had to be skipped in the last two years, so the question remains open,” he concluded.
Source:
São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)