Do you want to hear more about my amazing trip to Easter Island? Or about when we trekked to see mountain gorillas in Uganda? How about the time we explored Angkor Wat, Petra, the Pyramids of Egypt etc.?

Maybe you don’t….

I came across a very interesting article from the New York Times- Great Vacation? Don’t Brag to Your Friends.

I can’t say that I usually get into long, detailed conversations about our travels with friends when we get home from a trip. Most of them don’t travel or have much interest in doing so.

With that being said, friends probably aren’t so interested in hearing about our adventures. When asked about our trips, I’ll usually mention a few things but I try not to bore them with all the awesome details…

The Times article nicely explains the science about what I kinda already knew.

In the article, the Times looks into a study in Psychological Science where they determined why “Your friends don’t want to hear about your excellent adventures“. The article goes on to say that experiences are ours and there could be a social cost- exclusion by friends that don’t want to hear about it.

It sounds kind of cold but I kind of get it. If you weren’t there, do you really care about someone else’s experience? Probably not unless you are really interested in traveling.

According to the article, when people socialize and have had the same experiences, they like to talk about it regardless of how “mundane” it may have been. They might exclude the person who thinks everyone wants to hear about their incredible or unusual experience.

Another key point of the article/ study is “the pleasure of a social encounter is built on commonality“.

So when it comes to travel, those that haven’t had amazing experiences will most likely not care to hear about ours… (So you don’t want to hear about our amazing time on Easter Island??? 🙂 )

Find out more of the details in the NY Times article here.