Virtual Reality’s Effect on Time Estimation is Inconsistent and Depends on Environment Size

Despite anecdotal reports that time flies in virtual reality (VR), only a few studies have found that participants underestimate time in VR in comparison with a matched non-VR control condition. Across three experiments, we attempt to replicate one of these studies (Mullen and Davidenko, 2021) and to identify factors that may mediate the effect of VR on time estimation. Participants were assigned to play a simple video game for a specified duration (five or 10 minutes) in one of two display conditions (VR or conventional monitor), and we recorded the actual durations they produced. Experiments 1 and 2 both failed to replicate a VR-induced underestimation effect, suggesting that the previously reported effect is not reliable. However, the VR group in Experiment 2 produced significantly longer intervals than the VR group in Experiment 1. This difference may be related to changes in virtual camera size, which inversely determines the simulated scale of the environment in VR. Experiment 3 tested this possibility by assigning participants to estimate time in VR conditions that used a small, medium, or large virtual camera. Participants tended to underestimate time in smaller-camera (i.e., larger environment) conditions relative to larger-camera (smaller environment) conditions. Collectively, these results suggest that controlled experiments may fail to detect VR-induced time compression because the virtual environments that they use as stimuli (specifically, those that can be viewed from a fixed perspective in a non-VR control condition) lack the immersive scale of commercial VR experiences.