“In people’s minds, the holidays are over as soon as they begin,” the researchers said.
Every year, it’s the same old story: we wait impatiently for them and when they finally arrive, the holidays go by at breakneck speed. Strangely enough, much faster than when we work. It’s also the same thing for the weekend where time seems to pass in fast motion. Let’s be reassured, it’s not just an impression and there may even be a rational explanation, suggest researchers from Ohio University in a meta-analysis (compilation of several scientific studies) published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.
In one study, researchers asked 451 participants to rate whether the upcoming weekend would be “fun,” “bad,” or “just okay.” They then rated on a scale of 0 to 100 how close or far away the start of the weekend seemed (0 = very close, 100 = far away). The results showed that a fun weekend they were looking forward to felt more distant and shorter, while a bad weekend they weren’t looking forward to felt closer to the present and longer. An okay weekend fell somewhere in between, and went by neither quickly nor slowly. These findings apply to vacations: A dreaded business trip will pass more slowly than a leisure trip, given the same length of time.
The key message of this study is that the perception of time is affected by the nature of the future event and its anticipation. In other words, “The endless anticipation of the start of the holidays (a seemingly positive event) combined with the feeling that the holidays will fly by, leads people to feel that the beginning is far away and the end is near. In other words, in the person’s mind, the holidays are over as soon as they begin. They have a vague and impalpable duration“There’s also the thought of going back to school and preparing for the new school year, which significantly alters the perception of time,” says Selin Malkoc, co-author of the study and professor of marketing at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University.
Let’s reassure ourselves, there are several tips to make the holidays seem to go by more slowly:
► Going to a new place: in addition to breaking the routine, the brain will have more difficulty anticipating what it does not know.
► Do activities spontaneously rather than planning everything: predictable patterns speed up the perception of time.
► Slow down the pace by taking the time to eat breakfast, take a nap, read a book, meditate mindfully… or even “get bored” sometimes, which is very regenerating for the brain.
► Learning a new skill (guitar, surfing, cooking…) changes our perception of time. “When we repeat the same tasks, time passes much faster than when we do something new”is convinced by neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman. “first times” stretch time.