A study on the influence of facial trustworthiness on time perception

In social interactions, facial trustworthiness has a significant impact on choices in interpersonal, legal, and economic settings. Prior research indicates that assessments of trustworthiness are made rapidly and can alter cognitive functions such as memory and attention. Nevertheless, little is known about how these judgements affect how time is perceived. This study examines how perceived facial trustworthiness distorts subjective time perception. Participants completed a temporal bisection task with faces varying in trustworthiness. Results revealed that higher perceived trustworthiness led to overestimation of duration, with subjective evaluations driving this effect more strongly than manipulated features. These findings highlight the role of individual biases in trust-related time distortion, suggesting that trustworthy faces may prolong subjective time through attentional engagement or social reward processing. Implications for domains relying on rapid trust judgments (e.g., legal, human-computer interaction) are discussed. Future research should explore neural mechanisms and cultural variability underlying these effects.