Scientific Proof That No One Cares About Your Awesome Vacation

New York Magazine:

If you’ve even traveled a little bit, you know this is true: People who can’t relate to your trip hiking the Inca Trail, or wine tasting in Tuscany, or Zorbing in New Zealand, don’t really want to hear about it. Sure, they may listen politely for a minute, but apart from asking questions, there isn’t really much they can say in reply.

This is the basic premise at the heart of a new paper in Psychological Science: the idea that although extraordinary life experiences are exhilarating at the time, they may carry a social cost. Because when we normally chat with people, the authors contend, our conversations center on the things we have in common — movies we’ve seen, books we’ve read, people we know, places we’ve been. But uncommon experiences makes us at once “alien and enviable,” the authors write, which can leave us feeling left out. “At worst, people may be envious and resentful of those who have had an extraordinary experience ,and at best, they may find themselves with little to talk about,” write the authors, led by Harvard University social psychologist Gus Cooney.

Read the whole story: New York Magazine