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As a former McDonald's cashier/drive-thru operator, this makes intuitive sense to me.

There is a very real stress you feel when a line starts building up. I naturally worked harder when it felt like I was falling behind.

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From my retail experience I suspect the opposite is true for some cashiers - as their own line grows longer they actually slow down (or remain at the same rate) in order to encourage people in the line to move to a different cashier.

You are saying that when your individual line starts building up you feel pressure but when the single global line starts building up you would not feel pressure?

Yes, a single global line build-up doesn't feel solely like your responsibility. It's like a tragedy of the commons scenario.

Right. How would your manager know to berate you personally for a slow line? The responsibility is spread around.

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