Since 1868, numerous studies have been conducted to explore the area of time perception. The present study investigates the effects of mood and gender on time perception. The hypothesis presented is that in a certain emotional state one's perception of time is altered. To explore this hypothesis three gender balanced conditions were set up for a group of college students. The groups were shown one of three video clips in which the mood of sad, neutral, or happy were suggested with each clip lasting around 1 minute 10 seconds. Upon the end of the clip subjects were asked to estimate the duration of the clip. Results of this study exhibit a significant effect of mood on time perception, F (2, 35) =4.78, p= .016, η2= .25. The mean time estimation for participants in the funny video clip group was M=101.27, SD=36.772. Similarly the mean for the sad video clip group was M=103.13, SD=58.06. However, the mean of the neutral video clip group, M=180.83, SD=87.97 shows a clear separation between the neutral group and funny and sad group. A trend towards an effect of interaction between mood and subject gender was found with p=.069, with no effect of gender specifically pertaining to time perception with p= .882. Overall, results support the hypothesis that time perception is affected by one's mood.
