The potential mechanisms of self-conscious emotions influencing time perception: The mediating roles of arousal and attention networks

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2026.1459

Abstract

Abstract: The impact of self-conscious emotions on time perception and its underlying mechanisms remains an unresolved scientific question. Although existing research has explored the impact patterns of certain self-conscious emotions on time perception and inferred their underlying mechanisms based on literature, there has never been a systematic and direct exploration of the potential mechanisms underlying the influence of self-conscious emotions on time perception.
To address this, the current study designed two experiments. Experiment 1 aimed to induce four self-conscious emotions—embarrassment, guilt, pride, and shame—using a combined paradigm of recall/imagery and situational simulation. At the same time, the influence of four types of self-conscious emotions on time perception was also explored in experiment1. A total of 225 college students were randomly recruited from a university (after excluding dropouts, 203 participants remained) and assigned to five groups (embarrassment induction, guilt induction, pride induction, shame induction, and neutral group). All participants volunteered and provided informed consent before the experiment, with normal or corrected-to-normal vision. The study was approved by the Human Ethics Committee of the first author’s university. A pretest-posttest control group design was employed. The independent variable was the emotion group (embarrassment, guilt, pride, shame, and neutral), and the dependent variables were the induced emotion type, and intensity. Results showed that the combined recall/imagery and situational simulation paradigm successfully induced the target self-conscious emotions. A total of 188 participants met the sample size requirements. All participants volunteered, provided informed consent, and received compensation. The study was approved by the Human Ethics Committee of the first author's university. The experiment employed a 5 (emotion type: embarrassment, guilt, pride, shame, neutral) × 7 (probe duration: 400 ms, 600 ms, 800 ms, 1000 ms, 1200 ms, 1400 ms, 1600 ms) mixed design, with emotion type as a between-subjects variable and probe duration as a within-subjects variable. The dependent variables were the proportions of "long" responses [P (long)], the point of subjective equivalence (PSE), and the Weber coefficient (WR). Results revealed that, based on P (long) and PSE, pride and shame led to time underestimation.
Experiment 2 further explored the potential mechanisms of arousal and attention networks in the influence of self-conscious emotions on time perception within the framework of the pacemaker-accumulator model. A total of 134 participants met the sample size requirements. All participants volunteered, provided informed consent, and received compensation. The study was approved by the Human Ethics Committee of the first author's university. The experiment employed a 3 (emotion induction group: pride, shame, neutral) × 7 (probe duration: 400 ms, 600 ms, 800 ms, 1000 ms, 1200 ms, 1400 ms, 1600 ms) mixed design, with emotion induction as a between-subjects variable and probe duration as a within-subjects variable. The dependent variables were P (long), PSE, and WR. Results showed that, compared to neutral emotion, pride and shame led to time underestimation, whereas guilt and embarrassment did not distort time perception. Pride influenced time underestimation via arousal, while shame affected time underestimation through both arousal and attentional networks. These findings suggest two key pathways through which pride and shame influence time perception: one pathway is jointly mediated by the arousal and attention networks, with differences in their intensities of effect, and is shared by both emotions; the other pathway is unique to the emotion of pride and directly influences the perception of time duration. This provides critical evidence for understanding how self-conscious emotions affect time perception and the roles of arousal and attention networks in these mechanisms.

Key words: time perception, embarrassment, guilt, pride, shame, arousal, attention network

YIN Huazhan, WU Dehua, HE Ronghua. (2026). The potential mechanisms of self-conscious emotions influencing time perception: The mediating roles of arousal and attention networks. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 58(8), 1459-1475.

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