Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 17 July 2026 · From issue 07
People hold a button longer when they feel less confident in their answer.
Hanbei Zhou, Rui Zhe Goh et al., Response duration tracks confidence, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
People pressed a key for longer when they felt less sure about their answer. This happened in three separate lab studies. One study asked people to spot faces. Another asked them to judge which way dots were moving. A third asked trivia questions. In every case, how long someone held the key down told researchers something new about confidence. This held true even after accounting for how fast people first reacted. The finding suggests that key-holding time, not just reaction speed, can reveal how sure a person feels.
Integrity screen: passed (3 checks) Checked 20 July 2026. Retraction record: none. DOI resolves at doi.org. Metadata record found (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). Read the source
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