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Why the trip home always seems shorter

A sort of “watched pot” phenomenon

Dear Matthew Alice: From a perceptual point of view, the trip home from a destination always seems shorter. Anything to it? — Sugar Van Tassel, San Diego

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Definitely. Scientists have studied this phenomenon, and their data match your hunch. Mostly they looked at trips to places people hadn’t been to before. So if your daily commute seems faster coming home...well, you’re not commuting my route, that’s for sure.

After all their poking and probing, the science guys concluded that the more external information we have to process, the slower time seems to move. When we’re bombarded with visual and auditory stimuli, five minutes can seem like ten, apparendy. Driving to a new destination or driving a new route to an old destination, we’re more aware of the new things around us, especially if we’re looking for route numbers and turnoffs and landmarks. Going home, the route is at least a little familiar, we don’t have to examine it quite so closely, so we have less to process, and time glides by. It occurs to me that die anticipation of reaching some interesting destination may make things drag — a sort of “watched pot” phenomenon. But none of this explains why time moves glacially when we’re sitting around, comatose, waiting for our food in a restaurant or why we only seem to have ten minutes for that one-hour final exam. If the science guys track down those answers, I’ll let you know.


Apologies to JAP and Jan Steudtel for any confusion in the “restaurant check vs. bill” reply two weeks ago. Somewhere in the sludgy digital pipeline, I guess the file exploded. Once the smoke cleared and we retrieved the pieces, they were reassembled a little too creatively. That may have obscured the profound wisdom in the answer. As a disciplinary measure, I have the all elves locked in a small room until they complete a 3000-piece jigsaw puzzle titled “Mist Over Mashed Potatoes.” I’m unmoved by their whimpering. Periodically, they get Twinkies and Gatorade to keep their spirits up. I’m stern, but I’m fair.

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Dear Matthew Alice: From a perceptual point of view, the trip home from a destination always seems shorter. Anything to it? — Sugar Van Tassel, San Diego

Sponsored
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Definitely. Scientists have studied this phenomenon, and their data match your hunch. Mostly they looked at trips to places people hadn’t been to before. So if your daily commute seems faster coming home...well, you’re not commuting my route, that’s for sure.

After all their poking and probing, the science guys concluded that the more external information we have to process, the slower time seems to move. When we’re bombarded with visual and auditory stimuli, five minutes can seem like ten, apparendy. Driving to a new destination or driving a new route to an old destination, we’re more aware of the new things around us, especially if we’re looking for route numbers and turnoffs and landmarks. Going home, the route is at least a little familiar, we don’t have to examine it quite so closely, so we have less to process, and time glides by. It occurs to me that die anticipation of reaching some interesting destination may make things drag — a sort of “watched pot” phenomenon. But none of this explains why time moves glacially when we’re sitting around, comatose, waiting for our food in a restaurant or why we only seem to have ten minutes for that one-hour final exam. If the science guys track down those answers, I’ll let you know.


Apologies to JAP and Jan Steudtel for any confusion in the “restaurant check vs. bill” reply two weeks ago. Somewhere in the sludgy digital pipeline, I guess the file exploded. Once the smoke cleared and we retrieved the pieces, they were reassembled a little too creatively. That may have obscured the profound wisdom in the answer. As a disciplinary measure, I have the all elves locked in a small room until they complete a 3000-piece jigsaw puzzle titled “Mist Over Mashed Potatoes.” I’m unmoved by their whimpering. Periodically, they get Twinkies and Gatorade to keep their spirits up. I’m stern, but I’m fair.

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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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