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How To Cut In Line and Not Get Caught

Posted by samzenpus on from the no-cuts dept.

ewenc writes "A psychology study of hundreds of people waiting for front-row access to U2 concerts points to the best ways to cut in line and not get caught. 'Super-fans' are most irked by queue-jumpers. People were equally peeved whether someone cut in front or behind, and cutters who jumped beside a friend were less likely to attract scorn."

4 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And the reward for most useless researcher goes by ceoyoyo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Basic research doesn't always have immediate applications. Studying the psychology and sociology of lines is a hot topic among retailers though. How do you get people to line up like cattle and still have them feel like they're being treated reasonably well, and fairly? At least well enough that they come back. How does our society react to cheaters? The answer determines how many (and what kind) of cheaters will tend to exist. Are there differences between cultures or does our sense of fairness have some component that is innate to all humans?

  2. Learning to wait by petehead · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was at Disneyland a couple of weeks ago and a woman was pushing through people in the Pirates line with her ~4 year old son. We let her go by because it looked like they were rejoining someone up front. Then we heard the woman say to a group in front of us, "Sorry, he doesn't know how to wait". Well, how the hell is he going to learn?

  3. Re:And the reward for most useless researcher goes by thomasinx · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Anyone who thinks this research is about learning how to cut in line needs to read the article. This is about what kinds of line-cutting annoys other line-goers the most.

    Another way to look at this is as disturbing a stable system to learn about it. People line up in queues everywhere, and do it without even thinking. This generates several interesting questions: Why? (is it a learned action?) What causes people to dislike it when people cut?(from individual standpoints, someone cutting in line behind you doesn't affect you at all) Why do some people cut in line, and others wait in line? By watching what happens when these lines get undermined, you can learn a bit about why they're created, as well as the respective thought processes.

    The point of the research is to try to understand the whole queueing process, not to learn how to be a dick.

  4. Re:Just what we needed.. by gad_zuki! · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Maybe a little more that a tutting. My favorite queue jumping story is here:

    http://ask.metafilter.com/104881/Standing-In-Line#1516290