Effort, Time, and Beauty: Active Temporal Regulation Strengthens the Coupling Between Viewing Duration and Aesthetic Evaluation

This study examined how active viewing, defined as the intentional regulation of engagement with artwork, shapes aesthetic evaluation. Across three experiments using a pay-per-view (PPV) paradigm, the interactions between temporal investment, subjective experience, and stimulus type were examined. Experiment 1 compared active and passive PPV conditions. Although the effort associated with active control reduced total viewing duration, it significantly strengthened the positive association between viewing time and beauty ratings, indicating greater aesthetic value per unit of self-selected time. Experiment 2 manipulated engagement intensity (300 ms vs. 1,200 ms per keypress) and incorporated eye tracking. Higher intensity increased visual exploration, as indexed by fixation counts, but did not directly enhance beauty ratings. Mediation analyses revealed a suppression effect: longer viewing durations directly increased beauty ratings but indirectly reduced them by eliciting a subjective sense of temporal excess. Consequently, beauty ratings peaked when viewing time was perceived as "too short," reflecting a state of unfulfilled desire. Experiment 3 explored stimulus-specific dynamics and exhibited that facial photographs elicited minimal active temporal extension, consistent with automatic processing, whereas portrait appreciation was characterized by complex patterns of self-initiated key pressing. Together, these findings demonstrate that aesthetic evaluation depends not only on exposure duration but also on the intentional regulation and subjective experience of viewing time, highlighting active temporal regulation as a core mechanism of aesthetic experience.