Shopping on Saturday is certain to be crazed. Why do so many people wait until the last minute?
A. People have been asking this question forever but Joseph Ferrari, a DePaul psychology professor and a leading expert on procrastination, actually did something about it. In the mid-1990s, he studied Christmas shoppers at a mall in upstate New York.
“Procrastinators are not stupid people,” Ferrari said. “They are good at giving logical reasons for always being late. One excuse, anyone can take, but the excuses keep coming.”
He found that excuses fall into two categories: personal reasons, such as, “I can’t decide or I don’t like shopping”; or business-related reasons, such as, “I was just too busy at work.”
Ferrari also concluded that society encourages dillydallying at holiday time. Retail stores and malls encourage shoppers to wait by offering last-minute deals. Businesses are open late and there is the idea that deep discounts can be had by those hearty enough to endure the last-minute rush.
But Ferrari says there is a difference between occasional procrastinators and “chronic” procrastinators. (He estimates about 20 percent of American adults fall into that second category.)
The scientific study of procrastination was a late arrival in the field of psychology, dating to the 1980s, Ferrari said. This past summer, about two dozen researchers met at the Fourth International Meeting on the Study of Procrastination held at Roehampton University in England.
In the worst cases, procrastination can lead people to ignore life-threatening medical conditions or jeopardize their careers or relationships. One major focus for researchers is on “academic procrastination,” finding ways to help students who can let foot-dragging ruin their college career.
But back to Christmas. We asked Ferrari if he had finished his own shopping.
“You have to remember, I am totally against (procrastination),” he said. “Of course I’m finished.”
