Psychology of waiting in line: People who jump checkout lines when they're stuck at the very back aren't reacting only to wait time; research found being in last place itself increased switching and abandonment

You probably know that feeling. You're at Target, arms full, and you choose the shortest line. Then three more carts roll in behind the person in front of you, and you’re last again. No one likes it. But, as a study titled ‘Last-Place Aversion in Queues,’ by Ryan W. Buell of Harvard Business School, published in the journal Management Science, notes, it's not just the length of the wait that makes people uncomfortable. It's also the rank. Being dead last makes people less satisfied, more likely to switch lines, and more likely to just walk away, the research found.

It's not just the wait; it's the ranking
Here’s the twist. We tend to assume that people get antsy in line because time is passing. But Buell’s research points to something more specific going on. In an observational analysis of real shoppers at a grocery store and in four separate online studies where participants waited in virtual queues, the study found that being in the last position reduces wait satisfaction and increases the likelihood of switching lines and leaving the queue altogether, beyond the impact of the wait time itself.

This fits a broader psychological concept called “last-place aversion,” first documented in a different context. In this earlier study, ‘“Last-Place Aversion”: Evidence and Redistributive Implications,’ Ilyana Kuziemko, Ryan Buell, Taly Reich, and Michael Norton found that people will go to great lengths, even sacrificing money in lab experiments, to avoid being last in a ranking, and they resist outcomes that might allow someone below them to catch up. The queue study essentially takes that same instinct and shows it playing out in far more mundane settings: the checkout line, the DMV, the drive-thru.

Why does last place sting more than it should
So why is it that being last gets under our skin so much, even though we know intellectually someone has to be there? Buell’s research suggests a fairly relatable explanation: it’s hard to tell yourself the wait is “worth it” when you don’t have someone behind you to compare yourself to. There is something comforting about looking back and seeing a few people behind you. It’s a sign of progress, a validation of your choice. But remove that comparison and doubt creeps in. Was this really the better line? Should I bail?

That uncertainty, according to the study, is what pushes people toward what the researcher calls "maladaptive" behavior. People get tired of being last and switch lines, even though switching rarely works out and simply makes the wait longer than if they’d just stayed where they were. What’s worse is that people are more likely to give up queuing just as the reward for waiting is about to be highest, whether that's finally getting to the checkout or getting through to a customer service rep.

The fix might be simpler than you'd think
The most useful part of this research, particularly for anyone running a business, is its insights into queue transparency. When individuals are unsure whether they are truly last, because the queue turns out of view or an app does not show a queue position, the adverse consequences of last-place aversion are essentially neutralized. And when people can clearly see they are not last, even if they are still waiting a while, they are much less likely to leave the line.

Buell went one step further with a system-level experiment where pairs of queues were compared, where this last-place effect was addressed against ones where it wasn't. The overall abandonment was reduced, taking into account the effects of last-place aversion. In other words, businesses could serve more customers overall with the same arrival and service rates. That’s not a small thing for any company managing long lines, whether it’s airport security or your local restaurant during lunch rush.

A pattern that shows up everywhere
This is not the only study to show how much the queue experience influences customer behavior. According to a related study, ‘Making the Wait Worthwhile: Experiments on the Effect of Queueing on Consumption,’ by Sezer Ülkü, Chris Hydock, and Shiliang Cui, published in Management Science, waiting time itself can influence what people ultimately buy when they are finally served. Longer waits are associated with greater spending, another indication that the psychology of waiting in line runs deeper than mere boredom or impatience.

For American millennials and Gen Z, who grew up watching a progress bar or a number tick down on delivery apps, this research feels almost obvious once you hear it named. We've all had that moment of relief when the car behind us pulls in at a store and that brief surge of anxiety when we're the last one.

To be clear, this is just one body of research, stemming from particular settings such as a grocery store or controlled online experiments, and does not mean that all instances of line-switching are motivated by rank rather than urgency or real-time pressure. But it does provide a compelling, evidence-backed explanation for why something as small as a visible line-position indicator may be one of the cheapest, most effective fixes a business can make to stop customers from bailing at the worst possible moment.