Why the longer we are in a queue, the more likely it is we’ll stay put

AFTER waiting 15 minutes in a queue, a good many of us will decide to stay put – even when it may be better to leave.

The usual justification is that having waited so long already it is probably worth staying, despite all the foot-tapping and sighing.

Now scientists have found the reason or this seemingly illogical decision. It appears we may be hardwired to make bad decisions simply because we have already started a course of action.

Humans, mice and rats were all found to carry on waiting for a reward after it did not make sense to do so. In the case of humans, researchers at the University of Minnesota tested this by making 65 volunteers wait for different entertainment videos. They were far more likely to stay put, rather than move on to a different video, if they had waited a long time already. Dr David Redish, a co-author of the study said: ‘We see this behaviour in real life just as much as [in] an experiment.’

The study, published in the journal Science, is based around the idea of a ‘sunk cost’ – an investment of time which cannot be recovered.