Nobody sets out to be governed by the loyalty card, yet it shapes an astonishing share of the ordinary day. In the studies we have, the effect is modest, reliable and almost entirely ignored by the people it describes. The point is not that people are foolish. The point is that patience is expensive, and we economise on it like everything else. The evidence here is thinner than the confident commentary suggests, and the honest position is a shrug with a direction of travel.
Three kinds of mistake
The strange thing about the loyalty card is not that it exists but that it works, most of the time, for most people. If you want to see patience at work, watch a queue form where there is no reason for one. In the studies we have, the effect is modest, reliable and almost entirely ignored by the people it describes. Consider the loyalty card. It is a small thing, and small things are where habits live.
