1. From ancient Egypt to Rome, queues have been used to organise crowds/distribute resources.
2. The word queue comes from the French word cue, meaning ‘tail’, to describe a line of people.
3. Queue sounds strange because it’s a 5-letter word pronounced the same with 4 letters silent.
4. Queue seems strange because it means both a noun (a line) and a verb (to join or form a line).
5. Queues are worth studying for they reveal our strange ties to illogic, time, perception, norms.
6. The dictionary defines the queue as a line of people, usually standing, waiting for something.
7. MIT’s Richard Larson defines it as that which happens when real-time demand exceeds supply.
8. Seems like the dominant reason for people to queue is fairness, which is instinctive/intuitive.
9. The psychologist Stanley Milgram finds queue-jumpers being confronted only 10% of the time.
10. Which suggests that we prefer to absorb solitary rule breakers for the greater good of order.
11. Strangely, as the psychologist Adrian Furnham notes, our queueing habits run on a ‘Rule of 6.’
12. As in, we tend to give up in 6 mins, resist lines longer than 6, feel anxious within 6” gaps etc.
13. The Harvard professor David Maister points to at least 3 areas in queueing worth tinkering.
14. Unoccupied time feels longer than occupied time; so having us do something bends time.
15. Uncertain wait feels longer; so having us feel the progress or service dents the wait time.
16. And if people are made to perceive something as valuable or desirable, they’ll wait longer.
17. Indeed, Disney, the biggest researcher on queues, found that perceived wait > actual wait.
18. For people may forget the time spent waiting, but remember the way they felt during the wait.
19. Queues are strange because they balance fairness and efficiency, yet result in irrational actions.
20. Queues are strange because they're illogical, yet compel us to willingly subject to waiting/delay.
21. It's their strangeness that reveals ours, or as Descartes may have put, ‘We queue, therefore we are.’