When a person is under stress or anxiety, time flows more slowly for him. This explains the fact that thieves and liars have a different feel for the passage of time. This discovery was made by Japanese scientists, it was published in Biological Psychology.
During the experiment, Izumi Matsuda and Hiroshi Nittono asked students to steal something from the audience. As motivation, they promised 500 yen to everyone whose theft was not revealed. They were then shown images of various things on the screen and asked if they had stolen the item.
At the same time, some of the participants in the experiment, among others, showed real images of the items they had stolen. The researchers then asked the students to determine how long a particular picture lingered on the screen.
Special sensors were attached to the skin of the participants. Those who, among other things, were shown images with the stolen thing, the sensors recorded a surge of nervous excitement. In addition, it seemed to them that all the pictures on the screen were shown longer.
“When you try to hide something, time moves slower for you than usual, because you are in a state of excitement and heightened alertness,” the experts explained. At the same time, they added that when interrogating real suspects, innocent people can show such a reaction due to severe stress.