How VR Alters Our Sense of Time

Time seems to pass differently in virtual reality. It’s a maxim that has been repeated a lot since the arrival of consumer VR headsets, but now it seems that we are finally gaining a better understanding of exactly how VR plays with our perceptions of time. In fact, there is now experimental evidence suggesting that VR can make minutes fly by quicker than we realize.

This month, a team of researchers at University of California, Santa Cruz, published a study that probes the particulars of people’s sense of time using VR. Participants in the study were asked to play a simple maze game and stop when they thought five minutes had elapsed. On average, VR participants played for about 72 seconds longer than those playing on the flat screen.