After returning from holiday, it's likely you felt that the journey home by plane, car or train went much quicker than the outward journey, even though in fact both distances and journey are usually the same. So why the difference? According to a new study by Niels van de Ven and his colleagues it seems that many people find that, when taking a trip, the way back seems shorter. Their findings, published online in Springer's Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, suggest that this effect is caused by the different expectations we have, rather than being more familiar with the route on a return journey...

More...