“Time Slows Down Whenever You Are Around” for Women but Not for Men

Abstract

What happens when we unexpectedly see an attractive potential partner? Previous studies in laboratory settings suggest that the visualization of attractive and unattractive photographs influences the perception of time. The major aim of this research is to study time perception and attraction in a realistic social scenario, by investigating if changes in subjective time measured during a speed dating are associated with attraction. The duration of the dates was variable and participants had to estimate the time that passed. Among other measures, participants also rated the potential partners in terms of their physical attractiveness before and after the dates and reported if they would like to exchange contact with them. Results showed that, in a real speed dating situation, when there is a perception of the partner as being physically more attractive, women tend to overestimate the duration of that meeting, whereas men tend to underestimate its duration. Such changes may reflect evolutionary adaptations which make the human cognitive system more responsive in situations related to reproductive fitness.

Impact of babyface schema on time perception: Insights from neutral and crying facial expressions

“…This raised a question: Would the emotional babyface schema – especially crying – affect men's and women's time perception differently? This is particularly intriguing considering women's pivotal role in childcare, and recent studies have shown a sex difference in time perception (Arantes et al, 2021 ; Glicksohn & Hadad, 2012 ; Tian et al, 2019 ). To investigate this, we designed a second experiment mirroring Experiment 1, but this time focusing on the facial expressions of crying infants and crying adults.…”

Kaleidoscope

“…In an eclectic paper, Arantes et al manage to link the economic growth of the speed-dating industry to the Angry Birds movie franchise and, at the same time, study how participants allocate cognitive resource to the task of finding a mate. 8 They begin by surveying the literature on attractiveness through an evolutionary lens: perceived attractiveness influences automatic cognitive processes that might confer selective reproductive advantage (for example, if one had to efficiently locate a mate). One such automatic cognitive process is the perception of time – when people are engaged in cognitively demanding tasks, they perceive time as longer than the measured elapsed time.…”