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A trip to Disneyland or Disney World is a trip of a lifetime for many people. It’s amazing to see the crowds, the characters, and all of the fun associated with the experience. There is also something else that you get to experience when you are at the parks – long lines.

The Imagineers that work for the park have come up with a number of tricks to help people be patient while they are waiting in line. Popular Science reports on some of those tricks, and you might be surprised by the psychology that is behind them.

One of the ways that the wait time is made easier to bear is the way that they move people through the line. If you were to be in a line with hundreds of people that are just going back and forth through an open room, it would feel like you were waiting forever. That type of line would allow you to see how many people were in front of you, which can be frustrating.

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That is why the Imagineers decided to keep people from seeing too many others in the line. For example, Space Mountain has you going through walls down a twisted path, so you don’t know how much further you have to go until you get deeper into the building. It keeps people from giving up and walking away before they even give the line a chance.

The “Machiavellian twist” is another deceptive design used by the designers. If you’ve ever thought that a line was moving faster than you thought it should, it was done on purpose. The signs telling you how long you have to wait at the beginning of the line are inflated on purpose. You start out thinking that you will be in line 120 minutes and before you know it, the total wait time is down to 90 minutes!

One other trick that is used by Disney is to design the wait time to be enjoyable, rather than having you wait until you are on the ride. They design the waiting experience to be engaging. For example, the Tower of Terror line takes you through a hotel lobby straight out of the 1930s. It feels like you are walking through a movie set, rather than just standing in a line. Other rides may use special-effects, including animatronics and holograms. It’s all part of what makes Disney the happiest place on earth.