Vierordt's Law: This Is How You Really Understand Time

You and I overestimate short intervals of time and underestimate long intervals of time. Karl von Vierordt found this in 1868. He was a German physiologist. Despite one of his most substantial contributions being to psychology. This bias in temporal judgment — or the perception of time — limits us in how accurately we can assess and measure time without external aids. Brief durations are perceived as longer than they actually are — why 10-second pauses feel like 15- or 20-seconds when you’re waiting impatiently. Longer durations are perceived as shorter than their true length — why an hour-long meeting feels like it passes more quickly than expected.

Vierordt’s law is related to the general bias where judgments gravitate toward a standard, central, average value. This is called the central tendency effect. When perceiving time then, we psychologically “pull” extreme durations (very short or very long) toward the mean of what we have previously experienced. Hence something super short, like a 5-second countdown, feels way longer, and something lengthy, like a two-hour seminar, feels like it passes by quick. Plus the context, our attention, and individual expectations come in to modify our temporal judgment. How emotional we are and how focused we are on the task are big drivers.

Real-life implications of Vierordt’s law:

• Overestimating Short Intervals: when asked to judge brief durations, people often perceive them as longer than they actually are. 10-second pauses feel like 20-second alternatives when they’re waiting impatiently.

• Underestimating Long Intervals: conversely, when judging longer durations, people tend to perceive them as shorter than their true length. A three-hour lecture feels like it passes more quickly than expected, or waiting periods seem shorter in retrospect.

• Daily Delays: while waiting for a bus on a cold day, the 5 minutes feel significantly longer, causing overestimation of the short waiting time. Insight: negative emotions and boredom exaggerate the perceived length of short intervals.

• Events: a long meeting might seem to fly by, even if it lasts 90 minutes, resulting in an underestimation of overall time spent. Insight: engaging activities or time spent in flow can compress our perception of time.

• Sports: in a tense, high-stakes game, a few seconds can feel like an absolute eternity, while the overall game duration might seem shorter than it actually is. Insight: emotional arousal significantly affects how we perceive time during and after critical moments.

• Work Breaks: a brief coffee break might feel longer if you’re counting seconds, but a long lunch break might feel shorter due to conversation. Insight: where our attention and engagement goes can skew time perception for short and long intervals alike.

How you might use Vierordt’s law as a mental model: (1) integrate time sensitivity — when planning something that requires precision and punctuality, don’t rely on subjective estimates, and use timers or clocks, especially for short tasks; (2) project scheduling — for deadlines or meeting durations, factor in the psychological differences in time perception across individuals to improve accuracy and reduce stress; (3) manage your clock — reflect on how you see waiting periods, short and long, and use a time tracker to see where your time genuinely goes to improve your productivity; (4) design for laziness — in digital or physical environments, aim for interfaces that take into account time perception, with tools such as progress bars and loading animations to account for users’ tendency to overestimate short delays; (5) talk psychics, not physics — when promising quick results or short service, be mindful that customers will begin to see those durations differently based on how they are described and their emotional state.