Always Late for Appointments? Scientists Say It's a Problem with Your Memory
"Sorry, I'm late."
Those three little words have become cliché to many people attending a meeting or class or any other kind of gathering. Some chronically late people can't seem to shake off their propensity to be tardy.
Now, scientists say they have figured out why, The Daily Mail reported.
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In a recent study conducted at Washington University, researchers said chronic lateness is a problem with a person's Time-Based Prospective Memory (TBPM)—a type of memory where remembering something is caused by a time-related hint, for instance needing to leave the house for work by 9 a.m.
To test TBPM, the researchers gave participants in the study a task to do with a specific amount of time to complete it. They were allowed to check the clock before time ran out.
The researchers designed the task to be complex but at the same engrossing to the participants. The study found that the participants who completed the test in the given time were those who were better at checking the clock.
The study concluded that some people are better time estimators than others.
The researchers offered three solutions to habitually tardy people who want to get rid of their affliction. First, they simply have to check the clock regularly. Second, they have to come up with a strategy to get things done.
Thirdly, they should resist the temptation to do "one more thing" before doing their primary task, and also plan ahead how much time they will spend doing the task.
Last year, a science writer suggested that people who are constantly late may be suffering from a form of insanity, according to The Times.
Tim Urban even created an acronym to describe people suffering from the lateness compulsion: CLIP for chronically late insane people.
He said these people are those who have difficulty managing time. Others may have a "bizarre compulsion to defeat themselves" by making plans they know they cannot finish.
Adoree Durayappah-Harrison, writing for Psychology Today, offered a much simpler explanation why some people are habitually late: They don't want to be early.
She said there are various reasons why people don't want to be early. One is that it's inefficient, since "being early requires having to sit around with nothing to do."
Some people also don't like the uneasiness of being early. "They feel awkward and uncomfortable waiting," Harrison said.
"Arriving a few minutes early makes you feel proud and confident, but arriving too early can make you feel foolish. You fear others might think that you have no life aside from this event, and you don't want people to think that your time isn't valuable," she said.
