What is it about Polish people and lines?

A few days ago in Steven D. Levitt Blog, He hypothesizes that one possible explanation why Poles so good/rude to cut into a line is:

"With so many years of shortages, the rewards for becoming an expert line cutter were much greater in Poland than in the U.S. So they did perfect standing in lines — perfection means being able to cut in front of people and feel no guilt."

It sounds strange to me. If the hypothesis is true, we should also expect the cost of losing the place in line is very high (again due to many years of shortages). This means those already in line will try every effort to prevent being cut into...so, two force will somehow counteract each other. It is not obvious why cutting in line is so often.

An experiment may be look at the line cutting within the tourist area (where people in line did not face shortage in the past) versus the line cutting in the local area. But two problems are 1. mostly likely, the price in the tourist area may be high enough that line may not often exists. 2. not many locals in the tourist areas.