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Why We Hate Waiting in Line

Americans will spend 37 billion hours waiting in lines this year but how we experience that wait depends more on our psychology than it does any objective measure of time spent waiting. 
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What’s the Latest Development?

Americans will spend roughly 37 billion hours waiting in lines this year and whether we feel merely inconvenienced or thoroughly frazzled by the wait depends more on our psychology than on any objective measure of time spent waiting. Standing in line for five minutes represents unoccupied time, which people tend to report as lasting longer than the same five minutes of occupied time. In an attempt to alleviate our stress, businesses have responded by occupying us, whether that means placing mirrors in elevators, or tabloids and packets of gum at the grocery store checkout lane.

What’s the Big Idea?

Beyond our individual experiences of waiting in line, orderly queues represent an attempt by society to be fair, with those who cut the line subject not only to the ire of people behind them but people in front of them, as well. “A study of fans in line for U2 tickets found that people are just as upset by slips and skips that occur behind them, and thus don’t lengthen their wait, as they are by those in front of them.” Our fairness standard also states that waiting time should be proportional to the value of what we are waiting for, which explains the express checkout lane at grocery stores, a rare socially-sanctioned violation of first-come-first-served principle.

Photo credit: Shutterstock.com

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Guest Thinkers
Happy New Year
It’s plain to see that I’m an optimist, sometimes more than is socially comfortable. The ease with which I dismiss the disastrous economic decline above serves as one example of that. I wrote that the recession will benefit our political system, and, before I cut this line, as having “rewarded our company for methodical execution and ruthless efficiency by removing competitors from the landscape.” I make no mention of the disastrous effects on millions of people, and the great uncertainty that grips any well-briefed mind, because it truly doesn’t stand in the foreground of my mind (despite suffering personal loss of wealth). Our species is running towards a precipice with looming dangers like economic decline, political unrest, climate crisis, and more threatening to grip us as we jump off the edge, but my optimism is stronger now than ever before. On the other side of that looming gap are extraordinary breakthroughs in healthcare, communications technology, access to space, human productivity, artistic creation and literally hundreds of fields. With the right execution and a little bit of luck we’ll all live to see these breakthroughs — and members of my generation will live to see dramatically lengthened life-spans, exploration and colonization of space, and more opportunity than ever to work for passion instead of simply working for pay. Instead of taking this space to regale you with the many personal and focused changes I intend to make in 2009, let me rather encourage you to spend time this year thinking, as I’m going to, more about what we can do in 2009 to positively affect the future our culture will face in 2020, 2050, 3000 and beyond.
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