We’ve all had the experience of going on a road trip and feeling like we’re never going to get to
our destination. And yet, the return trip home seems so much shorter. If you took the same roads
and encountered similar traffic conditions, then the time should be about the same. But with the
return trip effect, the journey home feels shorter than the outward trip.
The return trip effect has to do with the subjective experience of time. At the biological level, we
have a number of internal clocks that are relatively precise. Our hearts beat to a steady rhythm,
and our bodies go through daily cycles. And yet at the psychological level, our perception of time
is imprecise and greatly influenced by our mood.
We’ve all had situations where time seemingly stood still and others when it just flew by. But our
ability to judge the actual passage of time is quite limited.
Psychologists have long been interested in the subjective experience of time in general and in the
return trip effect in particular. Several explanations for the effect have been offered as well,
each with some evidence in support.
In a recent article in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science, University of Miami
psychologist Zoey Chen and colleagues offer a novel explanation for the return trip effect,
which they test in a series of experiments.
One explanation for the return trip effect involves familiarity. The idea is that the subjective
perception of time slows down during unfamiliar experiences. As a result, the outbound journey feels
longer than the return trip. However, research shows that the return trip effect occurs even with
familiar journeys such as your daily commute.
An alternative explanation is that the return trip effect results from a violation of expectations.
People often underestimate how long it will take to do something. When they go on an unfamiliar trip
, they find the journey takes longer than expected. But on the return trip, they now know how long i
t will take, so there’s no violation of expectations.
Again, the problem is that the return trip effect still occurs with familiar trips. You know how lon
g your commute takes, but still the trip to work seems longer than the trip home.
Chen and colleagues propose an explanation for the return trip effect which they call the
anticipation account. The researchers start with the observation that the two legs of the
journey typically involve different levels of anticipation.
You are certainly more excited about going on your vacation at the beach than you are about your
return to your humdrum life afterward. And even during your morning commute, you’re usually
thinking ahead to all the things you have to do when you get there.
The researchers also point out that there are cases where the return trip effect works in reverse.
Imagine you’re at the supermarket when you get an emergency call from a family member. Your trip
back home will certainly feel longer than usual.
According to the researchers, anticipation heightens arousal, raising attention and causing us to be
more alert. Arousal also produces an apparent time elongation. If you’ve ever been in a serious
automobile accident or other highly dangerous situation, you no doubt had the experience of time
slowing down.
Recall that the return trip effect is but one instance of the larger phenomenon of the subjective
perception of time. So it isn’t necessary for experimental participants to actually go on a journey.
Rather, a virtual trip there and back will do just as well to elicit the return trip effect.