Nov 02, 2014 10:38 PM EST By J Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Sadness can last longer than other emotions such as ashamed, surprised, irritated or even boredom, according to a recent study.

Belgian researchers found that sadness can last up to 240 times longer than other emotions because it seems to go hand in hand with events of greater impact such as deaths or accidents. People need more time to mull over and cope with what happened to fully comprehend it.

"Emotions of shorter duration are typically -- but, of course, not always -- elicited by events of relatively low importance. On the other hand, long-lasting emotions tend to be about something highly important," researcher Saskia Lavrijsen said in a statement.

For the study, researchers asked more than 200 high school students to recollect recent emotional episodes and report their duration. The participants also had to answer questions about the strategies they use to appraise and deal with these emotions.

Researchers found meaningful differences in duration between emotions. Out of a set of 27 emotions, sadness lasted the longest, whereas shame, surprise, fear, disgust, boredom, being touched, irritated or feeling relief were often over in a flash.

Interestingly enough, boredom also counts among the shorter emotions experienced. Researchers said that this means that even though time seems to pass slowly when one is bored, an episode of boredom typically doesn't last that long.

They found that emotions that last a shorter time are typically elicited by events that have relatively low importance attached to them. On the other hand, long-lasting emotions tend to be caused by events that have strong implications for a person's major concerns.

Duration was found to be a dimension that can differentiate between otherwise very similar emotions. For instance, Researchers found that guilt is an emotion that persists much longer than shame, while anxiety lingers longer than fear.

"Rumination is the central determinant of why some emotions last longer than others. Emotions associated with high levels of rumination will last longest," Verduyn said.

The findings are detailed in Springer's journal Motivation and Emotion.

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