Tacking minutes onto a duration makes it feel longer, even when the total is shorter
People judged 2 hours and 55 minutes as longer than 3 hours across 10 studies, according to a Journal of Marketing Research paper. Anyone who sets deadlines or lists course lengths can shift how far away time feels, though the procrastination link was not tested directly.
The Scientist · Science desk
2 hours and 55 minutes is 175 minutes; 3 hours is 180 minutes. People judged the first as longer. Over 6,000 participants took part in nine experiments.
| Figure | Value | Note | Claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 hours and 55 minutes, in minutes | 175 minutes | 12 | |
| 3 hours, in minutes | 180 minutes | 12 | |
| Participants in nine experiments, over | 6,000 people | 3 |
What happened
- The 10 studies combine nine experiments, with more than 6,000 participants in all, and data drawn from upward of 10,000 online course listings.
- The proposed mechanism is that people think in the units they are given, so adding minutes brings many small units to mind instead of a few large ones.
- In one experiment, adding a time of day to the payment date made people less willing to hold out a few days for a bigger payment.
- In another, people set lower weekly exercise goals when the time was shown as 1 hour and 55 minutes than when it was shown as 2 hours.
Why it matters
- Who has to decide decision Whoever writes a deadline now chooses between a bare date and a date with a time of day, and the two will not feel equally far away.
- Who's exposed exposure A specific expiry date on a label made people judge recently expired products as less effective, so label format alone shifts how a lapsed medicine or food is perceived.
- What it limits constraint No format wins in general: a shorter-feeling time makes a goal look achievable, while a longer-feeling one signals value, as Sirwani says of online courses.
The comparison pair is built to be close. Three hours is 180 minutes and 2 hours and 55 minutes is 175, a gap of 5 minutes, or about 2.8 percent [12]. Anyone counting minutes would call the round figure longer [2].
The paper, "Every Minute Counts: The Added-Unit Effect In Time Perception," is listed under Tatiana Sokolova et al. [11]. The account here comes from Deepak Sirwani, an assistant professor at the UBC Sauder School of Business, in an interview with Phys.org [1]. The thing this doesn't tell you is how far the effect stretches. The interview does not report effect sizes or what happens as the gap widens.
The payment experiment is the nearest the interview comes to a behavioral outcome, and it measures willingness to wait. Whether anyone starts a task sooner or later is a further step, and Sirwani flagged the gap himself. "We did not test procrastination directly, but when a deadline feels farther away, people may be more likely to put things off," he said [13]. We would treat the deadline advice as a hypothesis resting on a measured shift in perceived distance.
The interview also does not say what the 10,000-plus course listings were compared on [3]. We cannot tell whether the course-length result comes from the listings, the experiments, or both.
Delivery windows follow the same pattern. A parcel that arrives "by 4 p.m. on Oct. 17" can feel farther away than one that arrives "by Oct. 17," Sirwani said, even though the first is likely sooner [9].
What to watch
- Whether the full paper reports effect sizes, and how the effect behaves when the gap between the two durations is an hour rather than 5 minutes.
- A direct test of procrastination, which Sirwani says was not run, to see if a farther-feeling deadline changes when people start.
- What the 10,000-plus course listings were compared on, and how learners responded to listed lengths.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence62
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Dr. Deepak Sirwani, a behavioral scientist and assistant professor at the UBC Sauder School of Business, discussed the research in a Q&A; the study is published in the Journal of Marketing Research.
- [2]
People perceive a duration as longer when it is described with a larger unit plus a smaller unit, such as 2 hours and 55 minutes, than with the larger unit alone, such as 3 hours, even though the latter is longer.
- [3]
The finding was seen across 10 studies, including data from more than 10,000 online course listings and nine experiments with over 6,000 participants.
- [4]
People mentally represent time using the units they are given; with 2 hours and 55 minutes the minutes come into focus, making the duration feel like many small units rather than a few large ones.
- [5]
A deadline of Dec. 15 at 8 p.m. can feel farther away than simply Dec. 15, because adding the time makes people think in hours rather than days.
- [6]
In one study, people were less willing to wait a few days for a larger payment when the payment date included a time of day, because the wait felt longer.
- [7]
In another study, people set lower weekly exercise goals when they were displayed in hours and minutes, such as 1 hour and 55 minutes, than in round hours such as 2 hours.
- [8]
A product labeled with an expiration date of Sept. 30, 2026 can feel like it expired longer ago than one labeled September 2026; people judged recently expired products as less effective when the label listed a specific date.
- [9]
A parcel that arrives "by 4 p.m. on Oct. 17" can feel farther away than one that arrives "by Oct. 17," even though the first is likely sooner.
- [10]
Neither format is universally better: sometimes a duration should feel shorter because it makes a goal feel achievable, and other times, as with the online courses studied, it should feel longer because it signals value or effort.
- [11]
The publication is Tatiana Sokolova et al., "EXPRESS: Every Minute Counts: The Added-Unit Effect In Time Perception," Journal of Marketing Research (2026).
- [12]
3 hours is 180 minutes and 2 hours and 55 minutes is 175 minutes, a gap of 5 minutes, about 2.8 percent of 180.
- [13]
"We did not test procrastination directly, but when a deadline feels farther away, people may be more likely to put things off."
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Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- phys.orgChanging how you think about time could help you accomplish year-end goals: Q&A
1 article · October 16, 2026
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