Want to know why taking someone to more places on a date makes it feel like you’ve known each other for longer?

It comes down to how the brain perceives time.

Your sense of time isn’t measured by a clock it’s built from how many new memories your brain encodes. When experiences are novel, the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex work harder to record rich sensory and emotional details. The more “memory markers” your brain lays down, the longer that period feels in hindsight.

This is why childhood summers felt endless everything was new, so your brain was constantly recording. As adults, with routine and predictability, fewer novel experiences get stored, making time feel like it passes faster.

The same principle applies to dating. Taking someone to multiple locations, a coffee shop, a park, a museum, then dinner gives their brain several distinct contexts to encode. This creates more memory traces and makes the day feel longer and more meaningful, as if you’ve known each other for much more time.

Psychologists call this “the time expansion effect”, linked to episodic memory formation. More novelty equals more emotional salience, which equals stronger memories.

So next time you plan a date, don’t just pick one spot build a mini adventure. You’re not just sharing time, you’re shaping how it’s remembered.