The fan who passes a concert with her phone in the air, paying more attention to her video framing than to the show, the Sunday jogger who boasts from Monday to Friday about his latest Sunday performance, the bike commuter who cries at the slightest glitch and ignores the Highway Code… The initial idea is simple: to take an interest in these little “annoying” gestures that tickle us every day. To this “feeling of omnipotence that makes us say ‘if I don’t do it, the other will, so I might as well do it myself'”, as described by psychologist Robert Zuili, author of Power of connections (ed. Mango, September 2023). Today, we’re heading to the airport. Where some annoying people are running in the boarding line even though the plane doesn’t take off for another 2 hours and 15 minutes.
The annoying fact
It’s waiting for you there, on the tarmac, with the already audible whistle of its warming-up engines like a promise of a well-deserved vacation or a quick business trip. But the smile is not yet radiant on your face. Getting to the boarding lounge has already been painful. Your flight is not scheduled until 2 p.m., but you left home early this morning to go through the metro, RER, endless corridors, check-in and security checks.
Arriving at the boarding gate, you finally let yourself go, slumped on one of those seats welded together when a voice announces over the loudspeaker: “Passengers of Air France flight 714 to Sydney are invited to proceed to gate 13 for boarding.” As soon as this is said, a small crowd gathers in a well-disciplined line in front of the small office where members of the crew are waiting. And in fact, one often feels an urgent need to follow the crowd.
Why is it so annoying?
“It always puts me under a bit of pressure when I see everyone getting up like that, almost all at once, even though the plane won’t leave without us. And we’re all obviously going to be standing and waiting,” Maxime sums up, in front of Terminal 2 of Marseille-Marignane airport. That day, he’s getting ready to leave for Brussels. A flight he takes regularly and for which he often prefers to board as late as possible. The goal: to reduce the time spent in an uncomfortable seat, where being able to stretch out your legs is more like a yoga position than a natural gesture. “And when I’m one of the last ones still seated, I feel really embarrassed,” Maxime continues.
What does Science say?
This phenomenon of discomfort, the doctor in social psychology Alisée Bruno explains it: “The social pressure felt comes from the individual desire to join a group, to be in the norm, in short”. A pressure in the face of which human beings seem helpless: “The cognitive bias imposed by social pressure is always stronger than the will of individuals”, continues the psychologist based in Drôme.
Worse, this conformism also applies to error: “Researchers in social psychology have shown that people tend to give the same point of view or conform to a behavior, even if it means being wrong. For example, if you show two pencils of strictly identical sizes to a person to whom you say: “this one is longer”, he will adopt the same point of view even if he knows that the information is false”, continues Alisée Bruno.
The arguments of the pains
Criticizing is one thing, but you still have to be able to listen to the arguments of the accused. For Christine, who is quick to get in line, it is “a question of respect: passengers are called to come forward, so I simply comply. In any case, we will have to go through it, and if everyone waits until the last minute, there will be a problem,” believes the sixty-year-old.
For others, it is more pragmatic to quickly take a seat on board: “I rarely take the plane, but I know that I like to be seated quickly. Firstly because I always try to sit by the window and if I have to negotiate with the person next to me, it is less awkward if I am seated first”, says Stéphanie. “That way, I don’t move until I arrive and I can settle in with my headphones”, smiles the young woman. A little “that’s it, I’m finally here, the holidays are starting” effect, describes the thirty-year-old, who works in social integration.
And then among regular users accustomed to traveling light, there may be the fear of seeing their hand luggage end up in the hold, with the assurance of losing a good half hour on arrival: “It happened to me once on a Marseille-Ajaccio flight, says Jean-Baptiste. I was late boarding, it was the middle of summer and there was no more room in the overhead lockers, I was told. So my little backpack went into the hold and I lost time on arrival,” regrets the Corsican.
The surefire way to make the pain in the neck understand that he’s a pain in the neck?
You can start bleating to show your disagreement, but that would contravene the most basic decorum. Basically, there is nothing dramatic about rushing into the boarding line. Some nonconformist minds have also tried to influence their peers: “I once tried to sit conspicuously on the row of seats closest to the line, watching people stand up. I didn’t think it had any effect,” laughs Maxime.
Another technique: mime or organize a telephone conversation that impatient people can clearly hear: “Yeah, I’m still waiting peacefully, sitting in the departure lounge. The call has started but there are already a whole bunch of people in line, I really don’t understand. I kiss you, I’ll call you when I arrive.” But I’m not sure that such a level of manipulation is profitable.