Sex-related differences in time estimation: the role of personality

Ambiguous findings on sex-related differences in time estimation may be primarily caused by two factors: (1) unreliable psychophysical methods for assessment of timing performance and (2) lack of control for personality traits that are likely to moderate estimation of time. In the present study, therefore, individual Big-Five personality traits as well as functional and dysfunctional impulsivity scores were obtained from 25 male and 35 female students. Furthermore, all participants were required to reproduce durations ranging from 1 to 5 s. As indicators of timing performance ratio scores, absolute error scores and coefficients of variation were determined. Neither of these psychophysical measures yielded significant differences between the male and female samples. However, stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that the personality traits Openness to Experience and Dysfunctional Impulsivity account for 45% of the total variance of individual variability in temporal reproductions in the male sample, as compared to only 5% in the female sample.