I'll do it tomorrow
One of the most bizarre psychological traits is the tendency to ignore a looming task or problem, beyond the point at which it could be dealt with easily. Individuals are guilty of it and groups even more so: the larger and more diverse the group, the more likely it is to indulge in procrastination.
Individual foot-dragging is exemplified by the first-year university student who puts off studying until the night before the exam. This is distinct from what some would call plain laziness - since the procrastinator generally does not simply do nothing, in place of what he thinks he should be doing. Instead, procrastinating students tend to go to great lengths to drown out the nagging voice of reason - playing video games, talking on the telephone, eating or practising sports.
All this has its counterpart in the group procrastinator. In the overwhelming majority of groups, from local communities to countries, nothing gets done until the 11th hour. The histories of cities show that unbearable living conditions have to be reached before action is taken to fix things. For example, in Hong Kong and in many other advanced cities, pollution levels have been allowed to reach levels that frequently make it unhealthy to go outdoors.
Procrastination is an evolutionary glitch. Natural selection generally means that we enjoy what is good for us - eating, sex and so forth. But procrastination - which boils down to choosing low-investment, short-term gratification over all other forms of reward - is usually not good for us. Perhaps humans have not had enough time to adapt to a world in which our very survival depends on tolerating a lengthening time lag between investing effort and feeling the benefit.
Occasionally, 'creative procrastination', as I call it, can supercede the need for the original task that the procrastination was designed to delay. This relates to the argument that some put forward as a reason not to worry about current problems, such as pollution. They feel that people should concentrate on being technologically inventive, and this will always, eventually, save the day.
Again, this has a parallel in the undergraduate procrastinator. Chronic student procrastinators tend to paint a picture of themselves as mavericks. They recall vividly doing well in tests after being particularly guilty of procrastination. In contrast, reformed procrastinators tend to recall occasions when procrastination led to disappointing results.
Chronic procrastinators - individual or societal - deeply cherish the idea of being exceptional. In an unexamined corner of the psyche, they use selective memory to provide the proof of that specialness. Procrastination, in other words, is a vestige of the illusion of imperviousness we all felt or yearned to feel as small children - before experience taught us that the rules that apply to everything and everyone else on Earth also apply to us.
The odd high-achieving, procrastinating maverick in university may do well, and there are certainly moments in history when human imagination, such as in the field of medicine, wiped out a social ill overnight. But, interestingly enough, genuinely gifted individuals seek just the sort of high-effort, far-sighted activities that procrastinators typically avoid. Unfortunately, as soon as those same bright individuals submit themselves to group decisions, they are less disposed to continue in the same vein.
Jean Nicol looks at everyday issues from the point of view of a psychologist
