From the BPS Research Digest: Researchers Marie Helweg-Larsen and Barbara L. LoMonaco have been studying the moral code of people who line up for tickets to see their favorite band — and they’ve found some surprising news. It turns out it’s just as annoying for a hard-core U2 fan to see someone jump the line behind them as it is to see someone jump in front of them. It’s not so much about keeping one’s place in line as it is about preserving the overall fairness of the line for the community, and thus sustaining the moral code of the U2 fan. Read the abstract or a PDF of the whole paper (3rd item down) >>
As the Research Digest points out, this research relates to some ground-breaking line-jumping research by Stanley Milgram in the 1980s. Learn more about Stanley Milgram in Philip Zimbardo’s TEDTalk >>
And apropos U2 — watch Bono as he accepts the 2005 TED Prize and makes a wish for Africa >>
Image: Ticket 47, U2 (2) at the Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 14 , 2005, from steev-o via Flickr.