Queue Jumping Study Review A recent study of responses to intrusions in different waiting lines in front of 49 different people, with 26 being male 18-58 years old and 23 being 18-61-year-old females, in different Melbourne petrol queues.. The procedure of the study was for a study participant in a luxury or non-luxury car to cut into a petrol to see whether there was a response and, if so, how heated it was. A comparison between the reaction to a luxury car cutting in line was compared to those cars cutting that were not luxury cars. The results did show higher offense with luxury cars as compared to non-luxury cars but the different was not as massive as many might have expected, with the overall average difference just being just over two points based on a total possible score of 28 with the higher the score showing more offense.

Queue Jumping

This report, as its basic purpose, is to cover the results of the queue jumping study mentioned in the abstract of this report. Sections of the report summary will include an introduction to the topic and the terms involved, the method used for the study, the results of the study, the discussion of the study and then the report will end with a conclusion. Multiple exterior sources will be used to confirm or perhaps counteract the findings and assertions in the study.

Introduction

There are a few terms and concepts that must be defined in advance of reviewing the minutia of the study. First, queue jumping is what it sounds like, that being a person new to a line (or queue) of people that inserts themselves anywhere other than the very end said line. A reaction to said queue jumping can range anywhere from a dirty look or pejoratives being muttered under one's breath to outright confrontation, verbal or physical, against the queue jumper (Milgram, Liberty, Toledo & Wackenhut, 1986). Social identity theory is the idea that a person's self is defined and codified by being a part of a larger social group. This concept was originally constructed and posited by Henri Tajfel and John Turner (Thoits & Virshup, 1997).

The definition offered for social identity theory is quite proper in the eyes of the author of this report and review. The work reviewed that offered the definition of social identity theory clearly made a demarcation between self-definition and that of the larger social group to which a person conforms. To suggest that all people identifying and otherwise trying to conform to a certain wider social identity are all going to personally be the same and/or that this should be the case is simply silly. That being said, there are commonly held rules and regulations that people in a society generally follow and expect others to fllow and not cutting in line is certainly one of those things. (Thoits & Virshup, 1997).

The work cited above also points to stark similarities, rather than big differences, between role-based identity and broader social identity. It is agreed upon by both theories that social roles are integral to broader social identities. That being said, role-based identity focuses less on negotiations about proper behavior and individual free will is also de-emphasizes with role-based identity models like those offered by Stryker (Thoits & Virshup, 1997).

The study done by Deakin was certainly fairly solid conceptually but the range in reactions between luxury and non-luxury cars was fairly narrow and speaks to the fact that the price point of the cutting car is perhaps not as important as what was thought, although there most certainly is a statistically significant difference. Indeed, someone reacting negatively to a luxury car cutting in a petrol queue may be indignant about the loss of time and/or money and not because the car is a luxury model. They may very well react just the same (or at least close) if a non-luxury car did the same thing. Even so, the luxury/non-luxury study is important because there was a very real question as to whether the price point of the cutting car mattered and it sure seems it does, least to some degree, but it is far from being the only aggravating factor to people that get cut in front of.

The study did a good job of laying out the commonly held assumptions and it had a good aim. They clearly wanted to see if there was a distinction between a non-luxury car queue jumping...

That is the metric that they were comparing. There were/are, as noted above, other dimensions that can matter but this study kept it simple and only looked at the one dimension. The wide variation of the survey responses showed that there was credence to the theoretical difference between the type of car queue jumping.
The study also shows that the pedigree of the car is not the only potential aggravating factor for victims of queue jumping and that that loss of money or time to a person is not always the main motivator, as people in front of a queue jumper are often just willing and able to voice their displeasure even though they are not standing to lose any time or money due to the queue jumper that is actually behind them. A prediction was clearly stated and it was confirmed but it is also clear that since the responses were both rather high on the 28 point scale shows that the indignant nature of the responses was sky-high even if the car was non-luxury.

Methods

As mostly mentioned in the abstract, there was a total of nearly 50 people that had their point in line compromised. Every single one of those respondents was driving a non-luxury car with the obvious intent being that the luxury car representing someone that more well off than the person that they were cutting in front of. Another set of people just under 50 in number jumped in line with the gender split being nearly identical. The people in the lines that were cut into were presumably not aware of the fact that they were being watched and analyzed at first, and that is of course necessary to get genuine and real responses rather than something based on the fact that the people knew they were being watched (Milgram, Liberty, Toledo & Wackenhut, 1986).

To further explain the design, there was a half and half gender split in the cutters and the people being cut on and there was also an even split between luxury cutters and non-luxury cutters. All people subject to cutting were given the same 28 point survey and the results of all the surveys were averaged both as individual groups as well as collectively to see if there was a strong variation between the two groups that had the different variagble.

The design was to have a fairly even number of men and women and to have an equally similar number of luxury cars and non-luxury cars, which is wise. Going too heavy with luxury or non-luxury would not work well and neither would going too heavy on female or male participants or queue jumpers. After all, there is going to be potential variations due to both factors. The procedure used, as noted above, could easily be replicated although the varation and gravity of responses would tend to very in good to average economic times as compared to periods like the one that ran from 2007 to 2009 around the world.

Results

The one and major table of the study shows the number of cuts for luxury and non-luxury cars and shows the standard deviation and mean for each one. Again, there was abn even split between both groups and within both groups and results were actually quite similar. The means are about 2 points apart and the standard deviations are about five hundredths apart so the results sure do seem accurate. Both the means and the deviations are fairly close together and what is interesting is that the standard deviation creeps up quite a bit when the two variable groups are meshed together, although the mean seems to fall in between. This makes sense because the average response of the two groups had roughly the same amount of standard deviation but they were two points apart (on average) so it makes sense that the standard deviation would creep up. If they were all close together, it would have remained flat. The study results clearly state that there was a higher aggravation score for luxury car drives and the results do reflect that, so the conclusion is valid.

Discussion

The aim of the study was clearly to find out if there was a clear difference in occurrence and response level when a car cutting in a petrol queue and that was clearly confirmed to be the case. The results are discussed fully, both through the tables as well as the discussion and results review in that same report. There was clearly a difference, albeit not a massive one, in the reaction rates. The study also…