TRIPS ON THE ROAD. WHY THE RETURN JOURNEY ALWAYS SEEMS SHORTER?

Summer: time for the holidays, time for travel.

Every one of us has at least once, returning from a trip, thought that it seemed to take less time than on the outward journey. The mileage is the same, the means of transport is the same. Yet the return journey always seems shorter.

Why is this?

It is, for all intents and purposes, an illusion in our minds called “the return trip effect”, which has a real scientific basis.

A number of experiments conducted in the Netherlands and the United States have explained that this phenomenon can make the return trip of a journey seem as much as 17-22% shorter than the outward trip.

So what happens in our minds to cause this different perception of the journeys we make?

During the outward journey our thinking is focused on the destination to be reached, which always seems further than it really is. For this reason, time seems to pass more slowly and the journey seems longer.

On the way back, however, the feeling is different. The journey is nearing its end, there is no longer the excitement of discovery that we felt on the way, and our mind focuses on the actual route we are taking, making us perceive the journey within a more realistic and therefore shorter time frame.

The”return trip effect” often occurs when we leave for holidays, long trips or weekends away, but is unlikely to be felt on regular everyday journeys like those travelled by commuters. In this case repetitiveness takes over, which enables us to perceive the different legs of the trip in a more realistic way.

 

Source: https://www.105.net/news/tutto-news/1353962/perche-al-ritorno-viaggio-la-strada-sembra-piu-breve-andata.html?fbclid=IwAR1Kow3L8bk61q9uE13lK4-0B0TZw-CqwnoR27q9HIt6JLW7hAPlew8NsEo