18 checked facts

Time

Everything on this site about time — each one naming the study behind it.

You overestimate your personal consistency.
The 'end of history illusion' suggests that people consistently fail to anticipate how their personality and preferenc…
You overestimate how much you will change in the future.
In a 2013 survey, people recognized how much they changed in the past but insisted their current personality was set f…
Wait times seem longer when you are uncertain.
The uncertainty effect in waiting demonstrates that people perceive wait times as significantly longer when the end of…
You perceive time as slower when you are afraid.
A 2007 study demonstrated that participants in high-arousal states, such as bungee jumping, overestimated the duration…
A moment of awe makes you feel like time is slowing down.
Experiencing awe expands your perception of time, leaving you feeling like you have more of it.…
You believe you have finally become your final self.
A 2013 study found that people consistently underestimate how much their personality, values, and preferences will cha…
You prefer a smaller reward now over a larger one later.
A 1975 study found that the subjective value of a reward decreases hyperbolically as the delay to receive it increases…
You believe you have finished changing your personality.
The end-of-history illusion is the tendency to believe that while you changed in the past, you are essentially 'done' …
You devalue future rewards to prioritize immediate, smaller gains.
A 1981 study found that participants often chose a smaller, immediate reward over a significantly larger reward availa…
Your best-case scenario is your default timeline for tasks.
People consistently underestimate the time, costs, and risks of future projects.…
You will always underestimate the time a task takes.
People consistently predict they will complete tasks faster than they actually do.…
You ignore how long an ordeal actually lasted.
When rating the discomfort of a medical procedure, patients disproportionately weigh the peak pain and the pain at the…
New experiences make time feel like it's slowing.
Initial studies suggested an unexpected stimulus makes its duration appear 30–50% longer, though later research shows …
You consistently underestimate the time tasks will take.
A 1994 study found that students predicted they would finish their thesis projects in 33 days, but actually took an av…
You are more motivated on the first of January.
A 2014 study found that people seek more 'fresh start' opportunities during temporal landmarks like birthdays or new y…
You value immediate satisfaction more than future success.
Delay discounting is the tendency to prefer smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards. Hyperbolic discou…
You expect your future self to work perfectly.
A 1994 study found that people consistently underestimate how long tasks take, even when they know their own history o…
You are biologically wired to miss your own deadlines.
People consistently underestimate how long a project will take, even when they have failed to finish on time before.…