{"id":5081,"date":"2025-05-13T18:43:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T18:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=5081"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:46:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:46:40","slug":"why-we-love-time-travel-tales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-we-love-time-travel-tales\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Love Time-Travel Tales"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\r\n

People love stories that involve time travel, from books such as The Time Machine<\/em> by H.G. Wells, A Wrinkle in Time<\/em> by Madeleine L\u2019Engle, and the Outlander series<\/em> by Diana Gabaldon (adapted into a TV series) and shows such as Doctor Who and Quantum Leap <\/em> to comedy movies such as Groundhog Day, Bill & Ted\u2019s Excellent Adventure, <\/em> and Hot Tub Time Machine <\/em>and action\/adventure films such as the Back to the Future and Terminator <\/em>series.<\/em><\/p>\r\n

What\u2019s so universally compelling about the concept?<\/p>\r\n

Academy of Management Scholar Abbie Shipp<\/a> of Texas Christian University said that the appeal of time-travel stories is that people often imagine what it would be like to travel backward and forward in time.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe live in any given moment, but in those moments as we mentally time travel, we can remember select things, we can forecast things, and so we can create whatever story we want,\u201d Shipp said. \u201cWhen we see it in movie or show form, it fascinates us to be able to move into the future and see, \u2018How did that play out?\u2019\u2014there\u2019s a little bit of certainty that comes with that, so that\u2019s one element.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAnother part of that is that we forget how things change,\u201d she said. \u201cFor example, we assume, \u2018If I am in an accident and suffer an injury and I lose the use of my legs, I would be so unhappy,\u2019 and there\u2019s a lot of research on this; yet we know that people have happiness set points.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe forget the resilience that we have over time.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Popular fantasy<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

\u201cI was just thinking about this today in terms of the weather,\u201d Shipp said. \u201cWe\u2019re having this really weird cold snap in Texas, and so, of course, my brain is thinking, \u2018Well, if this is what the weather is going to be from now on, I\u2019m going to move someplace else.\u2019<\/p>\r\n

\u201cBut that thought assumes this experience would be the same in another 10 years, rather than be temporary or change in another way,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat do I know about what the future holds?<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSome of those time-travel films get us thinking about the elements we\u2019ve forgotten about the past or what might be in the future, so it\u2019s as much a fantasy as it gives us something to sink our teeth into when we think about what\u2019s continuous versus what\u2019s changing.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

A sample of Shipp\u2019s AOM research findings:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n