Why Is 10 Past 10 the Default Setting for Clocks and Watches in Advertisements? A Psychological Experiment

Abstract

Have you ever noticed that in watch advertisements the time is usually set at 10:10? The reasons and psychological effects of this default time setting are elusive. In Experiment 1, we hypothesized that watches showing a time setting resembling a smiling face (10:10) would enhance emotional valence and intention to buy compared to a neutral time setting (11:30), whereas a time setting resembling a sad face (8:20) would have the opposite effect. Moreover, we investigated a possible interaction effect with the gender of the participants. In Experiment 2, we directly tested the hypotheses that watches set at 10:10 resemble a smiling face, whereas watches set at 8:20 resemble a sad face. The data of the first experiment reveal that watches set at 10:10 showed a significant positive effect on the emotion of the observer and the intention to buy. However, watches set at 8:20 did not show any effect on the emotion or the intention to buy. Moreover, watches set at 10:10 induced in women significantly stronger ratings of pleasure than in men. The data of the second experiment show that participants consistently perceive high resemblance between watches set at 10:10 and a smiling face as well as high resemblance between watches set at 8:20 and a sad face. This study provides for the first time empirical evidence for the notion that using watches with a time setting resembling a smiling face (like 10:10) can positively affect the emotional response of the observers and their evaluation of a seen watch, even though they are not aware of the fact that the shown time setting is inducing this effect. Practical implications of the observed findings and alternative explanations are discussed.

Keywords: emotion; face perception; neuromarketing; product design; subliminal perception.

FIGURE 1

Examples of the stimuli used in the first experiment. (A) Depicts one of the used watches with the three different time settings (10:10, 11:30, and 08:20). (B) Shows the pleasure scale from the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) of Bradley and Lang (1994). The most positive face was coded with number 5 while the most negative face was coded with number 1.

FIGURE 2

Examples of the stimuli used in the second experiment. Subjects were asked to compare watches with facial emotional expressions and to rate the resemblance between the facial emotional expression (smiling versus sad face) and the shown time setting (10:10, 11:30, and 08:20) on a scale from 1 (not resembling at all) to 10 (strongly resembling). The combination of time setting and facial emotional expression was randomized.

FIGURE 3

Effects of time setting (10:10, 11:30, and 08:20) on the emotional responses of the subjects (A). (B) Demonstrates the modulating effect of gender. (C) Shows the effect of time setting on the intention to buy. Error bars denote the standard error of the mean (SEM). ^∗P < 0.05; ^∗∗∗P < 0.001.

FIGURE 4

Effects of time setting (10:10, 11:30, and 08:20) on the perceived resemblance to a smiling face (A) and to a sad face (B). Error bars denote the standard error of the mean (SEM). ^∗P < 0.05; ^∗∗∗P < 0.001.