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Richard Larson

Massachusetts Institute

US National Science Foundation

Houston

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you find yourself waiting in a long queue at an airport or bus terminus this holiday, will you try to analyse what it is about queuing that makes you angry? Or will you just get angry with the nearest official? Professor Richard Larson, an electrical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hates queuing but rather than tear his hair out, he decided to study the subject. His first finding, which backs up earlier work at the US National Science Foundation, was that the degree of the annoyance was not directly related to the time. He cites an experiment at Houston airport where passengers had to walk for one minute from the plane to the baggage reclaim and then wait a further seven minutes to collect their luggage. Complaints were frequent, especially from those who had spent seven minutes watching passengers with just hand baggage get out immediately.
如果这个假期你在机场或车站排长队，你是去分析一下到底是排队的什么方面使你恼火呢？还是只会冲着身边的管理人员发脾气？ 理查德·拉森教授是麻省理工学院的电气工程师，他也讨厌排队。但是他并未因此而怒发冲冠，相反地他决定要研究这个课题。他的第一个研究结果表明，人们恼怒的程度与等待时间的长短并不直接相关，这也验证了美国国家科学基金会的早期研究。他引用休斯顿机场的实验为例。在休斯顿机场，乘客们下飞机之后走到行李提取处得用一分钟，然后再等七分钟才能领到行李。对此旅客怨声不断，尤其是那些等候领取行李的乘客，他们眼睁睁地看着那些只带着手提行李的旅客可以马上走出机场，而自己却要等上七分钟。