Emotion and Time Perception: Effects of Film-Induced Mood

Abstract

Previous research into emotion and time perception has been designed to study the time perception of emotional events themselves (e.g., facial expression). Our aim was to investigate the effect of emotions per se on the subsequent time judgment of a neutral, non-affective event. In the present study, the participants were presented with films inducing a specific mood and were subsequently given a temporal bisection task. More precisely, the participants were given two temporal bisection tasks, one before and the other after viewing the emotional film. Three emotional films were tested: one eliciting fear, another sadness, and a neutral control film. In addition, the direct mood experience was assessed using the Brief Mood Introspective Scale that was administered to the participants at the beginning and the end of the session. The results showed that the perception of time did not change after viewing either the neutral control films or the sad films although the participants reported being sadder and less aroused after than before watching the sad film clips. In contrast, the stimulus durations were judged longer after than before viewing the frightening films that were judged to increase the emotion of fear and arousal level. In combination with findings from previous studies, our data suggest that the selective lengthening effect after watching frightening films was mediated by an effect of arousal on the speed of the internal clock system.

Clock Speed as a Window into Dopaminergic Control of Emotion and Time Perception

“…For angry facial expressions this pattern has been replicated by the same research group and also, separate research groups (for a review see; Droit-Volet, 2013; Droit-Volet et al, 2013) using different tasks (Gil & DroitVolet, 2011). The overestimation effect generalizes to different types of emotional stimuli including emotional sounds (Noulhiane et al, 2007), aversively conditioned stimuli (Droit-Volet et al, 2010;Ogden et al, 2014), highly arousing negative images (Angrilli et al, 1997;Droit-Volet et al, 2011;Gil & Droit-Volet, 2012;Shi et al, 2012;Smith et al, 2011) and highly feared stimuli (Buetti & Lleras, 2012;Langer et al, 1961;Watts & Sharrock, 1984).…”

Time perception and age

“…The perception of time during a stressful or fearful situation seems much longer than the actual time that passes 4,19,20 . Terror movie scenes are imagined as lasting 2-fold, and sometimes 3-fold longer than the actual time that passes.…”

Unthinking remembrance?Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Redand the significance of centenaries

“…That's why we need to look back and make the details clear again" (Under 18, Female, UK). Research is beginning to explore how emotions might manipulate our perceptions of time (Droit-Volet, Fayolle, & Gil, 2011), and this might be a significant factor in our responses, suggesting that one group is perhaps more affectively attuned to their remembrance than another. 4 Respondents noted that it was important to mark 100 years because those who had fought in the War were now all gone, with a number referring to Harry Patch, the "last veteran of the trenches" who died in 2009 (Patch & van Emden, 2014).…”