This morning when my business partner and I were cycling to the office, we had to stop at a traffic light.
We were 10 ft from the button to tell the system we were waiting. So we just waited, assuming that the light eventually would turn green.
Moreover there were cars on the road that already signaled to the system (asphalt sensors).
A minute passed.
Two.
After 2 minutes I wanted to cross the 10ft. I didn’t. Neither I did after 3 and 4 minutes.
After 5 minutes the light turns green. We drive, in confusion that we didn’t choose to cross 10 ft to the other side of our road to speed up the process.
Once we humans are committed to a certain strategy that contains uncertainty, we have a hard time switching. Even though our chances of improvement of situation are disproportionate.
The Monty Hall problem illustrates this and we face this with daily choices like standing in line at the grocery store, waiting for our delivery meal and in my case today: walking to a button to give a system a heads-up we’re here.