Interesting Results
Attitudes Toward Queues
When do people waiting in a line decide to leave rather than waiting their turn? A recent study showed that the number of people who are in line after the person in question is one factor that influences the choice to stay or go, and also that the number of people behind a person in a queue influences that person’s attitudes about waiting — people are happier in a line with a lot of people behind them than in a line with only a few people behind them (when the number of people in front of them is held constant).
The authors propose two explanations for people being happier and less likely to leave a queue when many people are waiting behind them. They suggest that people feel better when they think that others are worse off than them, and that people assume that if there are a lot of people behind them now and they leave a line, they are likely to have to wait a long time if they come back later. The research demonstrated that these effects occur in different types of queues, but are most pronounced when people’s relative position in a line is very obvious.