Patience as a pathway to optimal consumer experience and behavior

Patience has been a consistent source of interest and inspiration for generations of thinkers and writers. In this article, I delineate the tenets of a comprehensive framework for understanding patience, the process model of patience (Sweeny, Personality and Social Psychology Review , 2025, 29, 145), that positions impatience as a common and unpleasant emotion and patience as a targeted form of emotion regulation. I then outline potential applications of the model for consumer decisions, service experiences, and marketing contexts and close with practical recommendations to optimize consumer behavior in contexts where impatience is likely to arise.