The NYT article that is the context for these tweets quotes the author of the column which reported on this research (so indirect, lol) as disagreeing, FWIW: > The final task Ms. Catron and her friend try — staring into each other’s eyes for four minutes — is less well documented, with the suggested duration ranging from two minutes to four. But Ms. Catron was unequivocal in her recommendation. “Two minutes is just enough to be terrified,” she told me. “Four really goes somewhere.”