No U-Turn Syndrome is a term first coined by Singaporean

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

 entrepreneur Sim Wong Hoo

Sim Wong Hoo

Sim Wong Hoo is the CEO and Chairman of Creative Technology, a designer and manufacturer of products for personal computers and personal digital entertainment devices.-Early life and career:...

, to prominently describe the social behaviour of Singaporeans having a mindset of compliance to higher authorities before proceeding with any action.

In his book Chaotic Thoughts from the Old Millennium, he uses a comparison of traffic rules in Singapore to those found overseas, to describe the phenomenon : In Singapore, drivers are not allowed to make a U-turn unless a sign specifically allows them to do so, while in some other countries drivers may make U-turns freely so long as the 'No U-turn' sign is not present. Following that, this analogy is used to explain the red tape

Red tape

Red tape is excessive regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules that is considered redundant or bureaucratic and hinders or prevents action or decision-making...

 he has encountered with hard-nosed bureaucrats

Bureaucracy

A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...

, which in turn stifles the very creativity

Creativity

Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...

 that the Singaporean government has been trying to promote in the recent years.

NUTS is also considered as one of the major criticisms of the rigid Singapore education system, where students are taught from a young age to obey instructions in an unquestioning manner, in a society where grades and paper certification are emphasised at the expense of some life skills.