Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 8, 2025

Author Spotlight: Exploring the Link Between Time Perception of Visual Stimuli and Reading Skills
Published on: January 19, 2024
How Facial Attractiveness Affects Time Perception: Increased Arousal Results in Temporal Dilation of Attractive Faces
Sihong Zhou1, Lingjing Li1,2, Fuyun Wang3
1Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China.
Abstract:
Time perception plays a fundamental role in people's daily life activities, and it is modulated by changes in environmental contexts. Recent studies have observed that attractive faces generally result in temporal dilation and have proposed increased arousal to account for such dilation. However, there is no direct empirical result to evidence such an account. The aim of the current study, therefore, was to clarify the relationship between arousal and the temporal dilation effect of facial attractiveness by introducing a rating of arousal to test the effect of arousal on temporal dilation (Experiment 1) and by regulating arousal via automatic expression suppression to explore the association between arousal and temporal dilation (Experiment 2). As a result, Experiment 1 found that increased arousal mediated the temporal dilation effect of attractive faces; Experiment 2 showed that the downregulation of arousal attenuated the temporal dilation of attractive faces. These results highlighted the role of increased arousal, which is a dominating mechanism of the temporal dilation effect of attractive faces.
More Related Videos
08:24The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies
Published on: August 25, 2023
13:00Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments
Published on: January 23, 2017
Related Concept Videos
Factors Influencing Attraction II: Physical Attraction
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
Relationship Formation
Factors Influencing Attraction I: Proximity
Factors Influencing Attraction VI: Personality Traits
Role of Affect in Interpersonal Attraction