New research challenges the age-old notion of patience as a moral virtue, revealing it instead as a sophisticated emotional coping mechanism that helps us handle life’s frustrating delays and setbacks.
Published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin | Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
While philosophers and religious scholars have long extolled patience as a virtue, UC Riverside psychology researcher Kate Sweeny has uncovered evidence suggesting a different perspective. “Philosophers and religious scholars call patience a virtue, yet most people claim to be impatient,” Sweeny notes. “That made me wonder if maybe patience is less about being a good person and more about how we deal with day-to-day frustrations.”
Through three comprehensive studies involving 1,200 participants, Sweeny and her research team have redefined our understanding of patience and impatience. Their findings suggest that impatience emerges when we encounter delays that feel unfair, unreasonable, or inappropriate—like encountering a traffic jam outside rush hour or sitting through a meeting that drags beyond its scheduled end time. Patience, they discovered, represents our strategic response to managing these feelings of impatience.
The research team, including graduate researchers Jason Hawes and Olivia T. Karaman, identified three scenarios that create what they call a “perfect storm” for impatience: high-stakes situations (such as being stuck in traffic en route to a favorite band’s concert), unpleasant waiting conditions (like standing in a crowded DMV with no available seats), and delays with clear culpability (such as when a laboratory forgets to process your medical test).
Intriguingly, the study revealed that the absolute duration of a delay matters less than whether it exceeds our expectations. The researchers also found that certain personality traits correlate with greater patience. Individuals who demonstrate emotional stability and comfort with open-ended situations typically report feeling less impatient in frustrating scenarios. Additionally, those with strong emotional skills and self-regulation abilities showed more patience in their responses, even when initially feeling impatient.
Glossary
- Emotion Regulation
- The psychological strategies people employ to increase or decrease the intensity of their emotional responses to situations.
- Need for Closure
- A personality trait reflecting how comfortable someone is with ambiguity and open-ended situations.
- Neuroticism
- A personality trait characterized by emotional instability and tendency to experience negative emotions.
Test Your Knowledge
What was the primary conclusion about patience from the research?
The research found that patience is not so much a virtue as it is a coping mechanism used to deal with feelings of impatience.
According to the study, what factors determine the length of a delay’s impact on impatience?
Surprisingly, the absolute length of a delay matters less than whether it exceeds our expectations – it’s not about how long the delay is, but whether it’s longer than anticipated.
What three conditions create what researchers called a “perfect storm” for impatience?
The three conditions are: high stakes situations (like traffic on the way to a concert), unpleasant waiting conditions (no seats or distractions), and clear blame for the delay (such as when a lab forgets to process a medical test).
How do personality traits and emotional regulation abilities interact with patience according to the research?
The study found that people who are more emotionally stable, comfortable with open-ended situations, and skilled at emotional regulation tend to be more patient. Additionally, being agreeable and having high empathy predicted greater patience, even when feeling initially impatient.
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