ShareBy Khaled Al-Abdulhadi
KUWAIT: Impatience is an issue that is quite evident in the Kuwaiti society, and can be seen on the streets during traffic jams, while waiting for medical care or even at co-ops waiting for our turn in line at the cashier. It is not uncommon for people to be impatient at some point throughout their lives, but it is a problem when impatience becomes a social phenomenon.
Former law professor at the University of California, Davis Toni Bernhard JD, in a 2013 article on Psychology Today, mentioned that impatience sometimes rises when our expectations are not met. These expectations could range from long traffic jams to unavailable parking spots to expecting a phone call at a certain time. Our expectations of the future and circumstances play a big role in why we might become impatient if our expectations are not met.
Moreover, a 2020 study on patients' impatience waiting for health service, by Dr Annabelle Roberts and Dr Ayelet Fishbach at the University of Chicago, found patients tend to become more impatient as their medical service is closer to being done. They found, according to surveys, that one in five patients switch doctors after long wait times, and 30 percent of patients even leave their appointment before receiving any care from their doctor.
Kuwait Times asked citizens about their thoughts on the subject of impatience in Kuwait and which factors play into a person becoming impatient. Adnan Al-Mejren, a 29-year-old Kuwaiti, spoke about the relationship between impatience and gratification. "There is the issue of delayed gratification and instant gratification, where people would rather have instant gratification, which is temporary, at the expense of gratification in the future," he explained.
"The problem we have in Kuwait is that most families give their children whatever they want because they can. Most families spoil their kids, which leads them to have this problem. They end up wanting everything immediately, which is not the children's fault, as they were born and brought up like this. For example, you graduate, and here you get this expensive car. They ask for clothes they get the most expensive brands. Therefore, they end up not knowing that things come with hard work. They end up thinking that things will come as soon as they want them, without having to do anything," Mejren said.
Moreover, he spoke about social factors that cause people to become impatient. "There is another factor that causes this issue - delays in completing paperwork at ministries, which needs to be addressed. Some employees give you wrong instructions or tell you to come at another time because they do not want to do their job at that specific moment. Others will tell you to come back later because the system is not working, even though they can resolve their issue and do the work. The same person will return with the same problem later, so why not finish their work? This leads to more delays and more crowding. Islam teaches us that work is worship - if people apply this to their daily lives, we will not have problems like these," Mejren told Kuwait Times.
Another Kuwaiti, Ahmed Jamal, 34, was also asked about the problem of impatience in Kuwaiti society. "It is the way many people are brought up in Kuwait. Some people want the easiest and fastest way to get things done. With some people, it is a matter of their nature. Some people are coolheaded and do not mind waiting, while others are hotblooded and want things done immediately," he said.
Asked which factors might play into this, he said: "Education, environment and the way they are brought up. Some children, by their nature, do not want to learn. They want everything ready, which is evident in their behavior, where the person is always in a hurry to get things done."
About natural factors, such as the climate, Jamal said: "It is natural that when we have high temperatures, people tend to be agitated. As we have seen with our friends in Europe, temperatures of 35 degrees centigrade have caused some people to die, unfortunately. In Kuwait, we live with 50-degree centigrade temperatures in mid-summer, which will of course cause a lot of extreme temperaments."
When asked about infrastructure, Jamal said: "Traffic is a problem all countries have to deal with. But advanced countries, unlike ours, are organized and are able to cope with the increased density. People there are afraid to commit any violations, because they will be held accountable. Here, people can get away with things like speeding and cutting people off on roads. Moreover, in Kuwait we suffer from outdated infrastructure, and we cannot cope with the exponential growth in population."
A 2013 study by Dr Janick Naveteur of University de Lille's department of biology and fellow colleagues examined the effects of time pressure and traffic on rule violations and risky behavior on 48 participants, where they found that impatience was caused by increased intensity and a negative psychological reaction to the situation when they were forced to stop during traffic. This means the effect of having to stop within their route while having a time constraint negatively affected their psychology at that moment.
Moreover, the problem of impatience comes with health risks, as the effects of being impatient is not just a psychological or social issue, but it is also a physiological one, as it could have negative impacts on people's health. The risks of being impatient have been studied in a 2013 study done on children and adolescents aged 10 to 18 by Matthias Sutter of the University of Cologne and fellow colleagues. They found that more impatient people tend to spend more money on substance abuse, have a higher body mass index and are less likely to save money in general.
In Kuwait, we can see this evident in the high rates of obesity, rising health risks such as diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as the rise in substance abuse in society. Therefore, we can conclude that impatience is a social phenomenon that affects society as a whole and can hinder the way a country functions. So, we must take care to minimize factors that cause impatience in people.
