Can Reverse Parking Reflect a Country's Economic Productivity? Apparently, Yes

You probably know about that famous Marshmallow Test, where researchers brought different kids in a room and offered them a marshmallow.

The procedure was simple: if they waited for five minutes without eating it, then they can have two marshmallows. The results were interesting: the kids who were able to wait it out for five minutes had more successful careers and better education than those who weren’t able to wait.

In case you're wondering what's it got to do with parking, it shares the same basic concept: Delayed Gratification.

According to an interesting yet controversial study made by Shaomin Li, a professor of International Business at Old Dominion University in Virginia, parking in reverse is a sign of delayed gratification.

"When they parked, they took effort--elaborate effort--to wiggle in, reverse--they never park head-in. All of a sudden I said, isn't this delayed gratification?" he said.

Can a Reverse Parking Culture Increase a Country's Economic Productivity?

"Needless to say, back-in parking takes more time and effort than head-in parking. Yet, it is easier, quicker, and safer when exiting," he explained. "Thus, we may conjecture that people take the trouble to back in demonstrate the ability to delay gratification; they want to invest more time and effort now so they can enjoy the fruits of their labor later. They demonstrate a culture of long-term orientation."

Li also went so far as to compare how this affected a country's economic activity. What he did was take pictures of parked cars in the U.S. and Taiwan, had friends take pictures in China, India, Russia, and Brazil, and then compared the reversed parking rate with the countries’ yearly productivity gains within a 10-year period (2001-2011).

His study revealed that India has 25.4 percent of its cars backed in. Russia  has 35 percent, and Taiwan, 59.4 percent. Meanwhile, almost 88 percent of cars in China were parked in reverse, while it's less than six percent in the U.S. and 17.1 percent in Brazil.

Interestingly, U.S. and Brazil had the lowest productivity gains during that time, at 1.5 and 1.3 percent, respectively, while China had the highest, at 17.8 percent.

Loopholes?

Still, the study is too limited to be conclusive. There are many factors that come into play here--not just delayed gratification. For instance, one has to consider that some parking stalls are narrower, which makes parking head-first much easier compared to reverse parking.

Also, some people just don’t feel comfortable doing reverse parking, and find it hard to do. Some drivers also feel the pressure from nearby drivers who are waiting for them do to a reverse and park accordingly, so they succumb to peer pressure and just park head-first.

Gender differences also come into play here. Psychologists say that males are far better at "mental rotation" (or one's ability to imagine objects in other than their actual positions) than women. Still, not all men are good at this either, so this should be taken with a grain of salt, too.

Whatever the case, reverse parking is still better because it's safer for everyone. But if it's really not your cup of tea, then make sure to get a really good rear detection camera at the very least. That way, you increase your odds of a safer exit whenever you park your vehicle facing the wall.