The way you think about and handle your emotions, specifically fear, says a lot about how you perceive time.

People with an angrier temperament are more likely to think of themselves as moving through time, than to think of time as moving towards them.

So what’s the difference. Think of it this way, pretend you have a meeting at work on Wednesday. Your boss calls you and says we’re moving the meeting forward 2 days, what day is the meeting happening on now? If you said Friday, you probably think of yourself as moving through time, if you said Monday, you think of time moving towards you.

62 student were given a version of [the work-meeting question] but they made it so the re-arranged event was either anger-provoking or neutral. On average, more students presented with the angry version said the event had been moved to Friday (as if they themselves were moving through time) than students presented with the neutral version. Moreover, the angry-version students were more likely (than the neutral students) to say that they felt as though they were approaching the event, rather than that the event was approaching them. In other words, it seems that angry thoughts can change the way we think about time.

Maybe the reverse is also true. Angry thoughts might shape the way we perceive time, but maybe our natural perception of time has a role in shaping how angry we are (or aren’t). Power and control also come into play. People who always feel the need to be in control of everything probably perceive themselves as moving through time, that way they’re in control. And yes, I do think as a result of this lifestyle, controlling people tend to be more angry.