Phrase Depicting Immoral Behavior Dilates Its Subjective Time Judgment.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Moral Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Intuitive moral emotions significantly influence human opinions and decision-making.
• The perception of subjective time concerning moral information remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how subjective time perception is affected by information related to immoral, disgust-eliciting, or neutral behaviors.
• To explore the relationship between the perceived duration of moral stimuli and individual prosocial tendencies.

Main Methods:

• A duration bisection task was employed to compare the perceived durations of phrases describing different types of behaviors.
• Participants' perception of time for immoral, disgust, and neutral phrases was measured.

Main Results:

• Phrases depicting immoral behavior were perceived as significantly longer than neutral and disgust phrases.
• The subjective duration of disgust phrases was comparable to that of neutral phrases.
• The time-lengthening effect of immoral phrases correlated significantly with participants' prosocial tendencies.

Conclusions:

• Immoral phrases appear to trigger an embodied moral reaction, influencing emotional state and subsequently lengthening subjective time perception.
• This suggests a direct link between moral processing, emotional state, and the subjective experience of time.