The Colour Red Affects Time Perception Differently In Different Contexts

Time perception is a vast concept.In general,it refers to individual perception to time(raging from sub-second to year),affected by internal factors(e.g.,sex,age,emotion)and external factors(e.g.,presence of music,stress,sexual information),which plays an important role for survival.Several previous studies found that many factors influence time perception;color is no exceptional.However,the studies examining colour and time perception have obtained inconsistent results.A few of them found that red accelerated time perception;however,others found the opposite results.Red,compared to other colors(e.g.,blue,green,etc),is a higher arousal stimulus to draw participants' attention to stimuli.According to Attention Gate theory,if non-time information draws more attention,time information get less;thus,time flies faster.Besides,according to Color in Context thoery,red leads to different psycholoical and behavioral effect depending on social contexts.This study therefore aimed to determine if the effect of colour on perceived duration varies in differing online contexts(dating online vs.interviewing online).Study 1 aimed to determine if the effect of colour on perceived duration varies in differing online contexts(dating online vs.interviewing online).Verbal estimation paradigm was used in this study.Colors(red vs.blue)and contexts(daitng online vs.interviewing online)were independent variables and duration estimated was dependent variable.Participants were first asked to read instruction primed to introduce contexts,and then to watch picture with color carefully for 10 s.Finally,they were asked to report duration estimated.The results showed that participants estimated the shorter duration and only for dating dating context.Study 2 aimed to explore whether different color words will influence timeperception and whether this effect depends on social context.Verbal estimation paradigm was used in this study.Color-words(red vs.greeen)and social contexts(interviewing online vs.dating online)were independent variables and the duration estimated was dependent variable.Participants were asked to read the instruction containing color-words to prime one of the social contexts,and then report the duration estimated.The results showed no effect on time perception from colors.Study 3 aimed to replicate the results from the study 1 and further to explore two potential mediation variables: emotion and motivation.Verbal estimation paradigm was used in this study.The colors(red vs.blue)and social contexts(interviewing online vs.dating online)were independent variables and the duration estimated was dependent variable.Participants were firstly asked to read the instruction to prime one of the social contexts and then to watch the portrait with the color for 10 s.After that,immediately,they were asked to report the duration estimated.And then,they were asked to finish one-item questionnare to assess their emotion and finish filler task to asses whether they exhibit locol thinkg or global thinking.The results showed that participants estimated the shorter duration and only for dating dating context,which were similar to the study 1.However,further analysis found no mediation effect of emotion and motivation.Two meta-analyses were conducted to synthesize emprical results from Study 1and Study 3.Four independent effect sizes(2 studies;198 participants)were pick out as meta-analysis unit and were analyzed by R 3.3.1.The results showed that red accelerates participants' time perception to make them report subjectively shorter duration.Besides,social contexts moderates this effect.According to the results above,there were several conclusions as following:1.Red accelerates individual time perception depending on social contexts;2.Red-words are not able to lead to the similar effect found in red;3.Emotion and motivation are not able to mediate the effect found in red affecting time perception.