Humans now have shorter attention spans than goldfish
| Humans now have shorter attention spans than goldfish | |
|---|---|
| FALSE | |
| "Human attention spans have fallen to eight seconds, shorter than the nine-second attention span of a goldfish, because of smartphones and digital media." | |
| Domain | Education & Learning |
| Tactic | Fabrication Statistical & Evidentiary Distortion |
| Era | Current |
| First seen | 2015 |
| Origin | A 2015 consumer insights report by Microsoft Canada on attention spans, which cited figures from the website Statistic Brain, followed by widespread coverage in news media |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-27 |
| Further reading: books on Education & Learning | |
The claim that humans now have shorter attention spans than goldfish went viral in 2015 after a Microsoft Canada marketing report stated that the average human attention span had fallen from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2013, one second less than a goldfish. The figures did not come from Microsoft's own research. They were attributed to a website called Statistic Brain, which could not point to any original study. Researchers say there is no single measure of "attention span," and the claim about goldfish is not based on any known research. Goldfish, in fact, can learn tasks and remember them for months.
The claim
The report, aimed at advertisers, said that digital lifestyles were reducing people's ability to focus. News outlets including Time and The Telegraph ran headlines saying people now had shorter attention spans than goldfish. The comparison has since been repeated in education conferences, marketing presentations and books, often to argue that lessons or content must be shorter.
What the evidence shows
- Unsourced figures. The Microsoft report included a page citing Statistic Brain for the 12-second and 8-second figures and the goldfish comparison. When the BBC's statistics program More or Less and other journalists investigated, they could not find any study that had produced the figures.
- No single measure. Psychologists measure attention in many ways, such as sustained attention on a task, the ability to ignore distractions and task switching. There is no standardized "attention span" measured in seconds that could be compared across years.
- Goldfish. Studies have shown that goldfish can be trained to respond to sounds or levers and retain that learning for months, contradicting the popular belief that they have very short memories.
- Real research. Researchers such as Gloria Mark at the University of California, Irvine, have found that people switch between tasks on screens frequently, with average attention to a single screen falling in recent decades. This is a different and more specific finding about behavior in digital environments, not evidence of a goldfish-level attention span.
Why it persists
The goldfish comparison is vivid and taps into widespread concern about smartphones and distraction. It appeared under a major company's name, which gave it credibility, and it was repeated by news outlets without checking the underlying source.
Lessons for readers
- Corporate marketing reports are not peer-reviewed research.
- Follow a statistic to its original source; "a study found" may lead nowhere.
- Be wary of oddly precise comparisons between humans and animals.
- Distinguish between specific research findings and sweeping generalizations.
- Concerns about digital distraction can be valid even when a specific statistic is false.
See also
- Digital natives learn differently
- People remember 10 percent of what they read and 90 percent of what they do
- Humans use only 10 percent of their brains
Sources
- Microsoft Canada, "Attention Spans," Consumer Insights report (2015).
- Kevin McSpadden, "You Now Have a Shorter Attention Span Than a Goldfish," Time, May 14, 2015.
- Simon Maybin, "Busting the attention span myth," BBC News (2017).
- Gloria Mark, Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity (Hanover Square Press, 2023).