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Travel has a funny way of changing the way we live our lives. Away from the routines and responsibilities of home, travellers may feel freer to stay out late, spend a little more cash or say yes to something they’d normally turn down – even as the pressure to make the most of every minute ramps up.
New research suggests this isn’t just holiday abandon. Many travellers are consciously giving themselves permission to behave differently while they’re away, with some even returning home surprised by their own choices.
Hint App, which offers advice based on birth charts, surveyed travellers to see how they behave away from home.
It questioned some 14,673 adults across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, European Union, Australia and Latin America and found that a surprising 61% deliberately behave differently while travelling than they would at home.
That’s despite respondents describing themselves as generally predictable or routine-driven in everyday life when out of office isn’t on.
Here’s what else the survey revealed.
How travel changes the way we behave
While some of us would never dream of doing something out of the ordinary while abroad, 47% of those surveyed actually said they had knowingly done something while away because it felt appropriate during a trip.
They added that they did it in spite of likely rejected the same choice at home, which suggests a temporary change in the standards people use to evaluate their own decisions when not at home.
That attitude shift can relate to countless different activities we all do when on holiday.
For instance, respondents said purchases are often easier to justify when they’re attached to a place they’ll likely never visit again. The data found that 38% admitted they’d chosen to buy something they’d typically consider to be unnecessary because it was inextricably linked to the memory of the trip.
Similarly, a late evening out can feel more valuable because the number of evenings available on a trip is limited. In fact, 42% said they had stayed out later than they actually wanted to because they did not want to “waste” a holiday evening.
The survey also showed that although travellers do behave in unusual ways, they’re actually often replacing one set of expectations with another, making sure they can justify to themselves the time, money, and effort invested in the trip.
A shift in behaviour isn’t always easy to recognise while actually in the middle of it, with 35% of respondents saying they arrived home surprised by something they had done or agreed to while away.
Ultimately, though, the survey can’t tell us whether our holiday behaviour is a truer reflection of who we are. What it does suggest is that the routines we stick to at home may be more flexible than we realise.
For the 61% who knowingly change their behaviour while travelling, a holiday creates a temporary excuse to rewrite the rulebook – whether that means splashing out on something unnecessary, squeezing one more drink into the evening or saying yes to an experience they’d usually turn down.