Psychology of the tardy fool

The tardy jerk doesn’t care about impressions. The tardy fool does.

So as the tardy fool runs late to his appointment, he messages the individual with whom he’s meeting, letting her know he’ll be x minutes late.

Of course his estimate of x minutes is based on wishful thinking. He’s misled by the planning fallacy, the cognitive tendency to underestimate how long a task will take to complete.

As more time passes, the tardy fool realizes he’s even more late than he’s estimated. He’s tempted to once again message the individual with whom he’s meeting, but he doesn’t. A new message would be an admission of incompetence (at best) or dishonesty (at worst).

When he finally arrives egregiously behind schedule, cognitive dissonance often forces the tardy fool into denial. Unwilling to confront the reality of the situation, he might downplay the infraction or ignore it altogether. When pushed, the tardy fool may even become agitated or angered.

The funny thing is that all the tardy fool every wanted was to make a good impression.