We know that time flies when you’re having fun. New psychology research now confirms that when you lie your perception of time slows down. Subjects who were instructed to lie underestimated the amount of time that passed while lying.
“You may have had an experience where you got nervous and wanted to escape from the situation when you attempted to deceive the other players in a card game, for example. In such a case, you might have felt that time passed slowly,” said study authors Izumi Matsuda and Hiroshi Nittono, an associate professor at Aoyama Gakuin University and a professor at Osaka University, respectively.
Two interesting points emerge after examining this research. First, it’s possible for people to train themselves to be better liars. Secondly, it may be possible to use this phenomenon as a means to deliberately distort an individual’s sense of time. Imagine being able to simulate “lost time” through a procedure of intentional lying and truth telling. The article notes that the effects outside of the lab may actually be stronger in real-world settings.
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