Shaping time perceptions with background music: The effect of congruity and arousal on estimates of ad durations

A time interval can seem longer or shorter in relation to clock time depending upon the stimulus information encountered, the internal states of the perceiver, and what is remembered. Temporal perceptions may have important commercial implications when a time interval is comprised of an ad, a shopping episode, a service encounter, or some other consumptive event. Because music is often used by marketers to fill time intervals, we used background music to manipulate stimulus characteristics (congruity of central and peripheral elements of radio ads) and arousal states of listeners in an experiment. Arousal was found to moderate the influence of stimulus congruity on perceived time such that congruity contributed positively to retrospective duration estimates among subjects exposed to soothing (versus arousing) music. We develop practical implications and directions for future research on antecedents and consequences of time perception. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.