The effect of facial attractiveness on temporal perception

Abstract

Previous research suggests that feelings of fear, dislike, shame and sadness affect our perception of duration (Droit-Volet et al., 2004; Gil et al., 2009). The current study sought to expand our understanding of the variables which moderate temporal perception by examining whether the attractiveness of a face influenced its perceived duration. Participants completed a verbal estimation task in which they judged the duration of attractive, unattractive and neutral faces. The results showed that participants underestimated the duration of unattractive faces relative to attractive and neutral faces. Estimates of unattractive faces were also less accurate than those of the attractive and neutral faces. The results are consistent with Gil et al.'s (2009) suggestion that the duration of disliked stimuli are underestimated relative to liked and neutral stimuli because they detract attention from temporal perception. Analysis of the slope and intercept of the estimation gradients supports Zakay and Block's (1997) suggestion that reduced attention to time results in a multiplicative underestimation of duration.

Keywords:

• Timing
• Verbal estimation
• Attractiveness
• Attention
• Emotion
• Arousal

I would like to thank Michelle Gleave for her assistance in collecting the data reported in this manuscript.

I would like to thank Michelle Gleave for her assistance in collecting the data reported in this manuscript.

Notes

¹ A follow-up study was conducted to explore perceptions of the typicality of the images used in the study. 30 female LJMU undergraduate students (M _age=18.28 years, SD=1.58 years) were asked to rate the typicality of the 40 facial images used in the stimulus generation task reported in this manuscript. Participants rated typicality using a 7-point Likert scale. The mean typicality rating for the 18 images used in the experiment (six attractive, six unattractive and six neutral) images were then compared. A repeated-measures ANOVA revealed a significant effect of Condition (attractive, unattractive and neutral) on typicality rating, F(2, 50) = 13.80, p<.001, . Post hoc tests (Bonferroni corrected) showed that the unattractive images (M=3.10, SD=1.11) were rated as significantly less typical than the attractive (M=4.67, SD=1.35) or neutral images (M=4.31, SD=0.74), p<.001. There was no significant difference in the typicality ratings of the attractive and neutral images, p=.79. These findings therefore confirm the suggestion that the a-typicality of the unattractive images may have detracted attention away from time.