The usual queues – when a separate “tail” is lined up for each cash desk – are increasingly being replaced by “serpentine” ones, where the next client is taken by the first free cashier. The “serpentine” line moves at the same pace, and the clients are on an equal footing here. It would seem that this option should suit everyone. But surveys of managers of large networks (for example, Walmart) show that many buyers are scared off by “serpentine” *.
They would rather take the risk and choose “their” turn in the hope that it is they who are lucky. The reason is our unconscious desire to “deceive the universe,” says anthropologist Paco Underhill: “The queuing race is a kind of lottery, and we enjoy when we feel that we are pulling ahead” **. It turns out that justice does not attract us as much as the chance (however small) to overtake others.
* According to Richard Larson, “Queue Theory” expert at MIT, esd.mit.edu
** P. Underhill “Why do we buy, or How to force to buy” (Potpourri, 2014).