Shared time: Implicitly emerging consensus on time perception

To test the hypothesis that the perception of time’s passage converges implicitly towards consensus in interactive dyads, 106 participants were involved in open-ended discussions. Some dyads conversed directly with each other (Interactive condition); other participants did not converse directly but rather did so through delayed tape recordings (Control condition). Both intraclass correlations and within-group variance measures revealed, as predicted, that more within-group consensus emerged in the Interactive (versus Control) Condition for two conceptually and empirically different markers of time perception. These effects were not accounted for by explicit mentions of time’s passage and thus they reflect the operation of a truly implicit convergence of time perception. Implications for our understanding of time perception and the implicit emergence of shared beliefs in groups are considered.