In 2013, a mind-bending read on the psychology of why time slows down when we’re afraid, speeds up as we age, and gets warped when we’re on vacation became one of the year’s most popular articles. Now, Australian science communicator Vanessa Hill, mastermind of the wonderful BrainCraft — a series of animated science explainers that fall somewhere between Vi Hart and AsapSCIENCE and yet feel entirely unique — explores the science of our warped time perception in a charming animated synthesis of six major studies that shed light on this cognitive perplexity:

For a deeper dive into the subject, see Claudia Hammond’s excellent Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception, one of the best psychology books of 2013.

Thanks, Joe