The University of Munich in Germany studied a group of people aged 14-94 and found that the older people feel the faster they have experienced in the past 10 years, but they are no longer "accelerated" after the age of 50. Studies at the University of Oberlin and Duke University have found similar patterns: for hours to months, both old and young feel the same, but for the last 10 years, older people feel better than young people. fast.
In 2013, the blink of an eye passed. You and your friends have expressed their feelings: Time flies! The little boy next door, who has graduated from high school unconsciously; the experience of going abroad for the honeymoon is like yesterday... Research has confirmed that when people are old, they will feel that time is getting faster and faster. Of course, human aging does not interfere with the physical time and space of the universe. This is just a subjective feeling. In this regard, psychologists have come up with a variety of interesting explanations, in which life stress is an important reason for the "acceleration" of time.
The University of Munich in Germany studied a group of people aged 14-94 and found that the older the people feel the faster they have been in the past 10 years, but they are no longer “accelerated” after the age of 50. It lasts until the old; in the sense of a shorter time, such as the past hour, week, and month, people's feelings have nothing to do with age. Studies at the University of Oberlin and Duke University have found similar patterns: for hours to months, both old and young feel the same, but for the last 10 years, older people feel better than young people. fast.
Jordan Lewis, a US science writer and Ph.D. student at the Pennsylvania State University School of Medicine, introduced several interpretations of this phenomenon in the psychology community:
1. You measure time through memorable events.
William James, the first psychologist in the United States, said that people use the "first time" to measure time, such as the first kiss, the first day of school, etc., but after adulthood, these first experiences are less and less, and life becomes dull. The days are getting more and more empty. Psychologists have extended James's theory that people measure the speed of time with the number of things they remember over time. For example, a 40-year-old aunt repeats the heavy and monotonous chores every day, recalling the unforgettable experiences of starting, graduating, and falling in the four years of going to college. Compared with the university age, the natural It’s going a lot faster.
2. You compare the elapsed time with the life you have experienced.
For a 5-year-old child, 20% of his age is 1 year old, and for a 50-year-old middle-aged person, 1 year is only 2% of his age. We always compare the time with the life we have spent, so we feel that this time is getting shorter and shorter, and time is getting faster and faster.
3. The body clock in your body slows down with age.
In the process of aging, some rhythm in the human body is slowing down, and the objective time does not slow down, it feels like it is fast.
4. Your age is getting older and your attention to time is reduced.
If you are a child, you will be holding your fingers for a few days in December. I hope to receive Santa’s gift on Christmas Day. If you are an adult, you will pay more attention to work, living expenses, family relationships, travel plans, festivals. Shopping and other troubles did not pay attention to the time quietly passed away - suddenly look back, you suddenly feel that last year's Christmas seems to be last week's business.
5. You are under increasing pressure.
A study by Hokkaido University in Japan found that people with high time pressure felt that time was passing very fast. A study by the University of Munich found that people between the ages of 20 and 59 generally felt that they could not do what they were doing in a given time. Researcher Whitman estimated that most people in this age group are in a career and need to take on the family. Responsibility is easy to feel overwhelmed. If you don't have enough time to do things, you will easily get the illusion that time passes quickly.
The feeling of passing fast may be difficult to eliminate. Lewis suggested that you can slow down the pace of life during the holidays, enjoy the time with your friends and relatives, and tell yourself that time is not getting faster.