Time experience in social isolation: a longitudinal study during the first months of COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil

Abstract

Social distancing in response to the Covid-19 pandemic brought several modifications in our daily lives. With these changes, some people have reported alterations in their feelings of how fast time was passing. In this study, we assessed whether and how social distancing influenced participants' time awareness and production of time intervals. Participants (n=3855) filled the first questionnaire approximately 60 days after the start of social isolation in Brazil and weekly questionnaires for 15 weeks during social distancing. Our results indicate that time was perceived as expanded at the beginning of social isolation, but this feeling decreased across the weeks. Time awareness was strongly associated with psychological factors such as loneliness, stress, and positive emotions, but not with time production. This relation was shown between participants and within their longitudinal reports. Taken together, our findings show how emotions are a crucial aspect of how time is felt.

Experiences of distortions to the passage of time during the Argentinian Covid-19 pandemic

“…prior to lockdown [ 1 , 2 ]. Significant distortions to the subjective speed of time have also been reported in France [ 3 , 4 ], Italy [ 5 , 6 ] and Brazil [ 7 ]. There is also evidence of increased time distortion for patient groups such as dementia with Lewy Bodies [ 6 ].…”

“…A slowing of time during lockdown in comparison with normal was also observed in a study of time experience in Italian patients with dementia with Lewy bodies [ 6 ]. Finally, a longitudinal study conducted in Brazil [ 7 ], revealed that at the start of the pandemic 65% of participants reported experiencing an increase in feeling of time expansion in comparison to prior to the pandemic. 75% of participants also reported a decrease in the feeling of time pressure.…”

“…Direct comparison between the data collected in Brazil [ 7 ] and Europe [ 1 – 6 ] is complicated by the different methods used to assess time experience. The majority of European studies have used likert or numerical rating scales to measure experiences of the relative speed of time during the pandemic in comparison to normal.…”

“…As in France, in Italy a slowing of the passage of time was associated with greater boredom [ 5 ]. Finally, in Brazil [ 7 ], experiences of time pressure were predicted by stress and busyness, with increased stress and increased working hours being associated with greater time pressure. The experience of time expansion was predicted by affective factors, with greater negative affect, reduced positive affect and greater social isolation being associated with time expansion.…”

“…Although there are differences in the individual predictors identified in different countries, there are some parallels between some of the factors studied. For example, there are similarities between Ogden’s [ 1 , 2 ] measure of task-load and the measures of boredom in Droit-Volet et al [ 3 ], and Martinelli et al [ 4 ], and measures of working hours in Cravo et al [ 7 ]. This is because reduced task-load is often associated with an increase in boredom [ 12 , 13 ].…”