Understanding people turns out to be a more urgent task than changing them, and a great deal harder. In the studies we have, the effect is modest, reliable and almost entirely ignored by the people it describes. It is tempting to call this irrational. It is more useful to ask what it is for. A pattern this consistent is not a character flaw. It is a design feature, and design features can be worked with.
Three kinds of mistake
A pattern this consistent is not a character flaw. It is a design feature, and design features can be worked with. None of this is new. Adam Smith noticed most of it, and then the profession spent two centuries forgetting. There is a version of this essay that ends with a policy prescription. This is not that version; the mechanism is interesting enough on its own. If you want to see patience at work, watch a queue form where there is no reason for one.
