Who has not suffered that moment of indecision when you enter a store and there are several rows available to pay or be served? The common and rational decision would be to choose the shortest line, but then another dilemma arrives.
And it does not matter which one we choose, it will always seem that the one next door moves faster. This may be true in some cases, but this scientist has shown that on average it is better for you to stay in the current row than to change to the one next door.
Ryan Buell is a scientist at the Harvard Business School and his latest research has been to analyze consumer behavior when faced with the choice of row.
What is the solution, have patience, change lines or abandon both and do something else with our time?
The study concluded that when a person is last in line, he is 4 times more likely to abandon it and 2 times more likely to switch to the one next door, Buell told The Guardian website, since his research has not yet has been published
However, moving to the next row does not necessarily bring any benefits. So, why do we do it? According to the researcher, it is due to our natural aversion to being the last in anything, and he proved it with an online experiment.
Buell conducted an online survey that supposedly took 5 minutes to complete, when in fact it took only 1 minute, but before accessing the survey participants had to make a virtual queue that could be seen on the screen.
One in five participants changed lines, and on average they waited more than those who did not change. Those who changed more than once had to wait even longer.
But how do we avoid the temptation to change? We have 2 options, to distract ourselves (speaking with the one in front of us, for example) or simply not to look back and stop paying attention to the other ranks.
In general, choosing the row on the left also helps, since almost everyone chooses the one on the right. And in the case of supermarkets, we can choose the row that is attended by several boxes at the same time, if available.
So you know, the next time you have to make a row, be patient and resist the temptation to change, because it will only make you take more time.
Reference:
BBC Mundo
