How not to get annoyed while waiting

The perception of wait time at work can be reduced by priming people to think in concrete, factual terms like assuming an employee is stuck in traffic, as opposed to subjective thoughts about individual behaviour, according to a study that may lead to new ways of managing workplace delays.

The study noted that abstract thinking at work generally leads to better outcomes, such as more creativity, and wider vision, but added that it can also contribute to undesired outcomes in stressful situations, such as while waiting.

“For example, if you are waiting for someone who is late to meet you, you are better off thinking in concrete terms, like assuming they got stuck in a traffic jam compared with abstract terms, like assuming they are disrespecting you,” said study coauthor Dorit Efrat-Treister from Ben Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev in Israel.

“We spend a part of our daily life waiting, and unfortunately, wait time can fuel aggressive tendencies,” EfratTreister said. In the study, the researchers arranged a meeting of people in a lab and each were told their partner was late. Each participant waited in separate rooms for 30 seconds, five minutes, or 10 minutes, they said.

Participants who were prompted to think abstractly perceived the waiting time as longer, and reacted more aggressively than those that were led to think concretely, .

“When someone is late for a call, if you think abstractly, you may think they don't respect your time, or they don't think the call is important, and therefore you might become mad. But if you think they may have just misplaced your number or got another call first, you won’t become so annoyed,” Efrat-Treister added.