A study with graduate student Peter Ungel gave participants small cuts and showed them clocks running at different speeds without their knowledge. Wounds healed faster when people thought more time had passed, and slower when they thought less time had passed, suggesting perception of time directly affects how quickly the body repairs itself.
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I did this study recently with my graduate student, Peter Ungel, and it's a study on wound healing. Now, so in order to test the one's mind, the degree to which your mind affects healing of the physical body, we had to inflict a wound. I am not sadistic. And even if I were, the human subjects committee is not going to let me. So it's a minor wound. Sure, but it's a wound. A little cut, a paper cutter. No, we used the Chinese cupping. Okay. Um, so creates it. And all we have are people in front of a clock. It's like a bruise almost. Yeah. Yeah, like a, exactly. Unbeknownst to them, the clock is going twice as fast as real time, half as fast as real time, or real time. The question we're asking is, does that bruise heal based on perceived time, the time the clock tells you, or real time? And it turns out it's perceived time. Come on.