The results to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:
What has more influence on the value of your place in a queue?
The number of people in front of you - 40%
The number of people behind you - 60%
That's a bit disappointing, given how easy the question is. If people had chosen at random, the result would have been barely different.
It is also strange that the known Georgists get it straight away, but the known Homeys twist and turn and say "Ah yes but…" and bring all sorts of other variables into the question.
Clearly, the answer is that the number of people behind you has a more influence (everything else being equal). As Thomas Hall explains:
If you join a queue of ten at a bank, and you wait ten minutes and all the time no-one else joins, you might feel annoyed/the biggest loser.
Conversely, if you join a queue of ten at a bank, and immediately afterwards loads more people join the queue, you feel happy you got in at the right time- even if in both instances you wait identical times to be seen.
How do we measure the value of a place in a queue? How likely you are to leave it and start again.
If there is nobody behind you, you are quite happy to nip off and do something else and come back later. If there are loads of people behind you, then you are more likely to stay put. That is entirely independent of how many people are in front of you.
Equally clear is that nearer the front you are, the more your place is worth, but that is because the nearer the front you are, the more people are behind you.
Debate Magazine
