Ever wondered why the second hour of a journey seems shorter than the first? The answer lies in how we are physically oriented in space!
In a series of six studies, researchers demonstrated that a person's orientation - the direction they are headed - changed how they thought of an object or event.
"Feeling close to or distant from something impacts our behaviour and judgement," said Sam Maglio, an assistant professor in University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC)'s Department of Management.
"We feel more socially connected, more emotionally engaged, and more attuned to the present when something is perceived as close," said Maglio.
What we don't know is what leads to a feeling of closeness, he said.
Previous studies have focused on changing objective measures, such as distance or time, to make something feel subjectively close or far.
"But people move around their environments, constantly going closer to some things and farther from others. We wanted to see if this movement changed how people perceived their surroundings," said Maglio.
Using everyday locations and objects such as subway stations, lottery draws and Starbucks drinks, Maglio and Evan Polman from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that people heading in a certain direction considered the places ahead to be physically nearer than those behind, although the actual distance was the same.
People also felt events that occurred in the direction they were headed happened more recently and that those events would be more likely to occur.
Interestingly, the feeling of closeness occurred regardless of whether events were good or bad.
Strangers who were coming towards participants were thought to be more similar to themselves than when those same strangers were headed away.
The research appears in the journal Psychological Science.
