People Living Near Fast Food Joints are Mostly Impatient: Study

Living near fast food restaurants can make people impatient, finds a study.

Residing in urban areas, near fast food restaurant and shopping malls greatly influences the outlook of the people. The work culture and speedy lifestyle influences people to seek instant gratification develop intolerance for waiting and lose ability to appreciate simpler things in life. Researchers from the University of Toronto's Rotman School found individuals who dwell near restaurants lose their ability to enjoy pleasurable and real experiences like discovering waterfall and admiring natural beauty, reports the Daily Mail.

For the study, experts used zip codes to identify participants living in areas centered across fast-food chains and restaurants in the U.S to survey about their patience levels. It was observed that majority of people living near busy eateries regardless of their economic status were unable to savor and feel fulfilled by doing pleasurable activities.

"If you want to raise kids where they're less impatient, they're able to smell the roses, they're able to delay gratification, then you should choose to live in a neighborhood where there is a lower concentration of fast food restaurants," said Sanford De Voe, an associate professor of organisational behavior and human resource management at the Rotman School, reports the Daily Mail.

In the second part of the trial, researchers showed participants pictures of fast food that was ready to be sent for packaging and images of nature or orchestral music. This was done to see if fast food causally affects people's ability to smell roses.

Participants exhibited impatient behavior by seeing images of fast food but relaxed after seeing pictures of same food served in normal tableware used at homes. These behaviors affected their ability to cherish and explore nature or music.  

"We think about fast food as saving us time and freeing us up to do the things that we want to do. But because it instigates this sense of impatience, there are a whole set of activities where it becomes a barrier to our enjoyment of them," said Prof De Voe.

The authors believe the study results indicate the unknown impacts of lifestyle and habits in our everyday life on our psychology.

More information is available online in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.