Abstract
Time perception and feelings, as well as emotions, are known to be correlated. However, few studies have been conducted on this issue. In this study, participants (N=271) were requested to imagine situations in which they perceive time as flowing slow or fast, and characteristics of the situations were compared. Moreover, correlations between the two situations and depressive tendencies were explanatorily investigated. Depression was assessed using a depression scale. Furthermore, participants were requested to freely describe situations in which they felt time that was flowing slow or fast, and text-mining analysis of the data was conducted. The results indicated that in settings in which time was perceived as flowing fast, the percentage of positive items such as “pleasant” was high, and “pleasant,” “hobby/amusement,” and “others” were correlated. Moreover, in settings in which time was perceived as flowing slow, there was a high percentage of negative items such as “unpleasant,” and “unpleasant” was correlated with “studies,” whereas “boring” was correlated with “part-time job.” Also, participants with depressive tendencies tended to describe contents related to “sleep” in settings in which time is perceived fast. These results suggest the possibility that psychological time could be related to emotional valence and depressive tendencies.
