Body Appreciation and Media Pressure Predict Time Perception During Exposure to Varying Body Sizes

This research investigates the influence of body pictures on time perception, specifically examining how viewing images of different body sizes affects subjective time estimation. Two experiments were conducted with female university students. Experiment 1 explored the effects of “underweight”, “normal', and “obese” body images on time perception and emotional responses, measuring valence and arousal. The results indicated that body size did not have a significant effect on time perception. However, “underweight” body images elicited more negative valence and higher arousal. Experiment 2 examined the moderating roles of additional variables on these effects, specifically measuring eating disorder symptoms, body appreciation, and media pressure. While body size did not directly affect time perception, lower body appreciation and higher media pressure were associated with longer subjective time estimations across all body image conditions. These findings suggest that emotional responses, particularly negative affect and increased arousal, to body images, and individual differences in body image-related attitudes, can indirectly influence the perception of time. Level of Evidence: Level I, experimental studies