Researchers timed hundreds of post-competition hugs by competitors at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and found that the average hug lasts three seconds. Apparently, this isn't the only human action that follows the three-second rule — babies tend to babble in three-second bursts, and the average goodbye wave also lasts three seconds.
More facts about the "three-second rule":
- Researchers speculate that the reason that so many basic human gestures last three seconds is because that's how far a human's sense of "nowness" lasts — possibly also explaining people's tendency to follow the "three-second rule" about dropped food.
- Studies dating to 1911 have documented the three-second rule. Even physiological actions, such as relaxed breathing, tend to happen in three-second intervals.
- Humans aren't the only ones who act in three-second bursts. Animals such as giraffes, raccoons, okapis and pandas also tend to act in three-second intervals, whether they're chewing, moving around or even defecating.