A Study of the Relationship between Attractiveness and Time Perception Using Face Images and Meaningless Figures

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated that attractive faces can affect an observer’s time perception. However, it is unclear whether this relationship can be generalized to other visual stimuli. Therefore, we conducted two experiments: one with face images and another with meaningless figures. In Experiment 1, participants performed a temporal bisection task; they judged whether randomly presented images of attractive, neutral, and unattractive faces (five each) were closer to the short or long standard duration for each male and female image. Participants underestimated the display duration of attractive faces relative to unattractive and neutral faces. Experiment 2 presented participants with five attractive and five unattractive meaningless figures using the same procedure as in Experiment 1. No significant difference was found in the perceived time duration between attractive and unattractive meaningless figures. This suggests that the relationship between the attractiveness of visual stimuli and time perception may vary depending on stimuli characteristics.