Placebo Buttons
The Misconception: All buttons placed around you do your bidding.
The Truth: Many public buttons are only there to comfort you.
You press the doorbell button, you hear the doorbell ring. You press the elevator button, it lights up. You press the button on the vending machine, a soft drink comes rattling down the chute.
Your whole life, you’ve pressed buttons and been rewarded. It’s conditioning at its simplest – just like a rat pressing a lever to get a pellet of food.
The thing about buttons though is there seems to be some invisible magic taking place between the moment you press them down and when you get the expected result. You can never really be sure you caused the soft drink to appear without opening up the vending machine to see how it works.
Maybe there’s a man inside who pulls out the can of soda and puts it in the chute. Maybe there’s a camera watching the machine, and someone in a distant control room tells the machine to dispense your pop.
You just don’t know, and that’s how conditioning works. As long as you get the result you were looking for after you press the button, it doesn’t matter. You will be more likely to press the button in the future (or less likely to stop).
The problem here is that some buttons in modern life don’t actually do anything at all. The magic between the button press and the result you want is all in your head. You never catch on – because you are not so smart.
According to a 2008 article in the New Yorker, close buttons don’t close the elevator doors in many elevators built in the United States since the 1990s. In some elevators the button is there for workers and emergency personnel to use, and it only works with a key. The key-only settings isn’t always active though, as the blog Design with Intent asserts. Each elevator is different. In some, the emergency function requires a long-press of several seconds longer than the average user attempts. The website, The Straight Dope, investigated the issue in 1986 by asking elevator companies and elevator repairmen directly. According to their investigation, “The grim truth is that a significant percentage of the close-door buttons in this world…don’t do anything at all.” The reasons cited were that the button was never wired up, or that it was set to a delay, or was deactivated by the owner, or it broke long ago and no one ever complained because the doors eventually close whether or not you press the buttons. More recently, fire personnel
If you happen to find yourself pressing a non-functional close-door button, and later the doors close, you’ll probably never notice because a little spurt of happiness will cascade through your brain once you see what you believe is a response to your action. Your behavior was just reinforced. You will keep pressing the button in the future.
Non-functioning mechanisms like this that motivate you to fool yourself are called placebo buttons, and they’re everywhere.
Computers and timers now control the lights at many intersections, but at one time little buttons at crosswalks allowed people to trigger the signal change. Those buttons are mostly all disabled now, but the task of replacing or removing all of them was so great most cities just left them up. You still press them though, because the light eventually changes.
In an investigation by ABC news in 2010, only one functioning crosswalk button could be found in Austin, Texas; Gainsville, Fla.; and Syracuse, NY.
The city deactivated most of the pedestrian buttons long ago with the emergence of computer-controlled traffic signals, even as an unwitting public continued to push on, according to city Department of Transportation officials. More than 2,500 of the 3,250 walk buttons that still exist function essentially as mechanical placebos, city figures show. Any benefit from them is only imagined.
- New York Times, 2004
In many offices and cubicle farms, the thermostat on the wall isn’t connected to anything. Landlords, engineers and HVAC specialists have installed dummy thermostats for decades to keep people from costing companies money by constantly adjusting the temperature. According to a 2003 article in the Wall Street Journal, one HVAC specialist surmises 90 percent of all office thermostats are fake (others say it’s more like 2 percent). Some companies even install noise generators to complete the illusion after you turn the knob.
In a survey conducted in 2003 by the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration News, 72 percent of respondents admitted to installing dummy thermostats.
“We had an employee that always complained of being hot,” recalls Greg Perakes, an HVACR instructor in Tennessee. “Our solution was to install a pneumatic thermostat. We ran the main air line to it inside of an enclosed I-beam. Then we just attached a short piece of tubing to the branch outlet (terminating inside the I-beam without being attached to any valves, etc.).”
The worker “could adjust her own temperature whenever she felt the need,” Perakes says, “thus enabling her to work more and complain less. When she heard the hissing air coming from inside the I-beam, she felt in control. We never heard another word about the situation from her again. Case solved.”
- The Air-Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration News, Mar. 27, 2003
Placebo buttons are a lot like superstitions, or ancient rituals. You do something in the hopes of an outcome – if you get the outcome, you keep the superstition.
Dancing to bring the rain, sacrificing a goat to get the sun to rise – it turns out these are a lot like pressing the button at the crosswalk over and over again.
Your brain doesn’t like randomness, and so it tries to connect a cause to every effect; when it can’t, you make one up.
You Are Not So Smart – The Book
If you buy one book this year…well, I suppose you should get something you’ve had your eye on for a while. But, if you buy two or more books this year, might I recommend one of them be a celebration of self delusion? Give the gift of humility (to yourself or someone else you love). Watch the trailer.
Order now: Amazon - Barnes and Noble – iTunes - Books A Million
Links:
NYT article on crosswalk buttons
Article on fake thermostats in The Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration News
Testimonial from HVAC worker who installs fake thermostats
Design with Intent – Elevator Close Buttons
WSJ article on dummy thermostats
Radio Boston article on non-functioning crosswalk buttons
ABC News Story on Placebo Buttons
The Straight Dope on Elevator Close Buttons
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There are some intersections that stay green in one direction until there is a car which is waiting at the intersection to advance in the other direction. There’s a metal detector beneath which will trigger the light change, but there’s no automatic detector for pedestrians who want to cross; in that case, they’ll have to use the button.
But, yeah, most of the time, the pedestrian button is not useful. The example you cited for it is specifically for New York, but it’s probable it is true for other areas.
Fag
Jon, you know I don’t like it when you use that word!
Johnny, stop calling people names you homo!
Jon come back to bed, I can’t keep it hard forever, there’s only so long I can look at pictures of your sexual conquests with various pets.
Omg! I hope you didn’t show him what we did in highschool. We were just a little curious =(
Wait, you two did that too? Jon you liar! You said I was special. And I never told anyone!
C-C-C-C-C-C-OMBO BREAKER
Faggot
That goes for you too Cindy! And why don’t you wear that nice sweater I gave you on Christmas? And please call more often you know I worry…
Im a dyke.
围观……
这让我想起了贾君鹏。
（XDDDDDDD我就是欺负你萌看不懂中文！）
我们中有些人是华人
JOHN!!! MARRY ME!!! YOU ARE SO HOT!!!!
He’s mine, you crazy bimbo!!!11!!
Bark Bark Bark Bark (I enjoy bacon)
Ive pressed a bunch and I could find only one that actually works in my town (newark, DE) . It changes the light immediately when i press it consistently.
Did you know if you press any button exactly 4000 times it will change the lights in your favour.
boring troll
Did you know if you say gullible really fast it sounds like giraffe?
Trololololol
Damn, I almost tried that out loud.
No it doesn’t. Liar!
At the stoplights in my town and in the one I just moved from, the walk symbol wouldn’t ever come on unless the pedestrian button was pushed. Also, as the previous commenter said, it often does affect whether traffic going one direction is allowed to go or turn.
I’ve just started reading your site, and I like it a lot. In the first several posts I read, you backed up your assertions with links to real studies, and in some cases you provided examples which the reader can try on his/her own to demonstrate the described behavior.
This post disappointed me a bit, though. Although I agree that the concept of a placebo button is perfectly reasonable, you use as evidence some statements which are either unsupported or based on anecdotal, questionable sources.
“According to a 2003 article in the Wall Street Journal, 90 percent of all office thermostats are fake.”
Not really. In the article, that percentage is quoted as the “estimate” of one “HVAC specialist” from Illinois. In the very same sentence, WSJ reports that “others say it’s below 2%.” I think both numbers are easily questioned, especially since they are so divergent.
Of crosswalk buttons, you say “Those buttons are all disabled now”, but the very article you linked states, “There are 750 locations where the buttons actually do work.”
Everyone uses imprecision of language in this way. That last sentence of mine is a perfect example. However, your posts are based on the very idea of paying close objective attention to situations that we are accustomed to dealing with in terms of assumptions and generalizations. In my opinion, your impact is much greater when your supporting documentation is authoritative and accurately-quoted.
Just my 2 cents.
In the beginning, when no one was reading, I was a bit sloppy. I’m trying to be more conscious of attribution and sourcing now. Thanks for reading.
Thanks Jeff. I’ve revised the wording to be more accurate.
Well, said. I am of the source and the cite. Many though trust the source as a person stating whatever they may state with no fluid evidence of anything being true to the word. I have noticed this in higher education as well. I have been in room where almost everyone had a completely inaccurate concept of a theory because someone told them so, but THE BOOKS that they would rather not take the time to read actually provide the truth with evidence. Always interesting.
I did find the post very very interesting though!
It’s a bit counter intuitive but the quickest way to close an elevator door is to press the open button. Sensing the door is already open, the elevator software will go to the next step and initiate a much shorter count down timer than was initially set, to close it.
“For instance, the close buttons don’t close the elevator doors in most elevators built in the United States since the Americans with Disabilities Act. The button is there for workers and emergency personnel to use, and it only works with a key.”
Interestingly enough, in Japan, the close buttons in elevators still work as designed, and frequently in high-end stores there is an attendant whose only job is to control the buttons in the elevator and announce the floor and its merchandise. Crosswalk buttons largely still work as well.
One factor not mentioned in disabling crosswalk buttons is that it is, or at least was when I was growing up, a common prank for kids to pull, pushing the button without intending to cross just to stop traffic. Many such controls were disabled because this causes unnecessary delays in traffic, and raises the risk of accidents.
There’s a specific intersection in Minneapolis that I cross as a pedestrian all the time. If I do not press the button, I never get the “walk” signal and the light only stays green for a very short time. If I do press the button, the walk signal goes on and the light stays green long enough for me to walk across the street (it’s a wide street).
I don’t know how many times I’ve had to explain to my fellow pedestrians in the area that in this case, the button actually does make a difference.
Yeah, that’s the problem with knowing that a lot of them don’t do anything; unless you know which ones work and which don’t, it doesn’t actually help you except maybe if you are very familiar with the area. I almost always push the button, because if it is hooked up, I get a benefit, and if it isn’t, I haven’t actually lost anything. Frankly it’s a lot less time and energy consuming to just always push it than to try to determine which ones are hooked up.
Ever since I heard about close buttons not working I’ve been trying to find elevators that have a disabled close button. They all seem to work though (you can tell, because if they work the doors close instantly). Perhaps not as common to disable the close button in Europe?
Those crosswalk buttons are especially annoying though. You’re never really sure whether they work or not, so you have to press them either way. There’s a couple I’ve happened upon that work regardless of pressing the button, but you could still reason that there might be some logic that pushes a light change up if somebody presses it. You just don’t know. Anyone installing a button on lights that doesn’t actually do anything should be shot.
I design and have designed many HVAC systems for small and tall buildings a like and I have never heard of dummy thermostats. I’m not saying its completely false but there is absolutley no way that “90 percent of all office thermostats are fake”
The thermostat is vitally important to the HVAC design, there has to be a thermostat in the space, and most offices are built with variable air systems that require many thermostats in localized areas so that its not all based off of one thermostat location. Also, the engineer can be sued if there are too many complaints and would never want to put their stamp on something like that.
Companies in most cases are more concerned with employee comfort than saving the money you get from a couple degree changes here and there.
As a former energy efficiency auditor for a utility company, I inspected many HVAC systems in commercial/industrial buildings of many sizes. I did come across a few dummy t-stats in my day. These were usually installed by the employer (after the initial design & installation) to appease the employees. I was never aware of a licensed HVAC contractor installing dummy t-stats upon initial installation. I’m not saying it didn’t happen, I was just never aware of it.
A lot of audio engineers will put up faux faders for the producer or the manager to use that don’t do anything at all. It makes them feel like they’ve done a significant change, but if they were to actually have a working fader, it could mess up days of work in the studio or cause massive feedback at a concert.
The best producers/managers are the ones that let the engineer do the job they are being paid for and have the training for and they worry about their responsibilities.
some consoles have faders like that that do nothing but turn on and off a light. gives the producer a sense that they’ve actually done something. works like a charm.
And that, my friends, is where religion comes from. This is the mindset that created all gods.
Cool post, and way to take the objective criticism of Jeff.
I must be living a very statistically improbable life according to this article, because I deal with seeming counterexamples to this article on a daily basis. At the intersections that I cross, pressing the button doesn’t seem to make the light change any faster, but it does increase the amount of time that people have to cross the street by a good ten seconds. The intersection has a countdown timer, so unless some diabolical engineer decided to make seconds about 66% shorter ONLY when the button is pressed, then I’d say the button actually makes a difference.
As for the close-doors button in the elevator, I’ve definitely run into both functional and placebo kinds. The last apartment building I lived in was rather new and had a door close button that caused the doors to close right when you pressed it, even when you pressed it right after getting in the elevator. It was awesome for messing with people.
Hmm that’s interesting. I wonder how many Pedestrian buttons actually work. I know here in Utah that many stoplights require the pedestrian to push the button or the sign will never switch to walk no matter how many times you watch the light switch (I’ve made the mistake of forgetting to push the button and sat there for 2 full rotations of the lights before I got the message that I needed to push the button)
And I know that some of the elevator buttons aren’t placebos either. Some hotels that I’ve stayed in you can close the doors right away (takes about 1 second after you hit the button) but in other places I have noticed that after I push the button it still takes about 10 seconds for the door to close.
I guess the question is do you want to take the chance of sitting there and waiting like an idiot when all you have to do is simply push the button. Or are you going to just use the button even when there is a chance it is a placebo.
I am a frequent pedestrian in the Bay Area. Evey traffic light which has a pedestrian crossing has a a button to push to activate the walk signal. This is California. If that button is not pushed, there is simply no walk signal. You can stand there all day waiting for the walk signal to show. Ain’t happening unless someone pushes that button. If you’re expecting to encounter a placebo button at one of these intersections, you better hope a local pedestrian comes along to activate the walk signal. The way people drive around here, you may not want to jaywalk.
I live in California too, and 95% of the crosswalks I use don’t work unless you press the button. There are a few in downtown areas that are automatic and still have buttons, so I’m not sure if the buttons actually do anything, but I know for a fact that most lights will either never change or will not give the “walk” sign unless you hit the button.
As far as elevators, I’ve often noticed that pushing the button seems to do absolutely nothing; the doors still take a few seconds to close. I have, however, been in plenty of elevators where the doors close immediately when you hit the button and you can confirm the button does something by comparing this to the closing time without pressing the button.
Also from California, and yeah, there are no automated crosswalks where I’m from. The light will stay red, regardless of traffic direction, unless the button is pressed. I was about to make a right turn at a green light today when some man suddenly bolted across the intersection while the pedestrian light was red. If they were truly automated here, that wouldn’t have happened. Anyhow, the crosswalk placebos are certainly not nationwide.
What BS. The lights around my corner take a while to go red for me to cross the road, but that’s because they’re only pedestrian lights, and have nothing to do with traffic flow. If you don’t press the button, they never go red.
This article was such bs D: I can’t believe I wasted my time reading it. Get over yerself.
you write like a prick.
all i read was “omg u and your tinny brain cannot comprehend buttons. but i am smart and have read many books on the subject!!!!!”
you can’t even spell tiny.
ninny.
prat.
hoddypeak.
Point: made.
Examples used: crap.
Outside of metro Melbourne, not pressing the button means that the lights will change but the pedestrian lights will never turn green.
We have button operated crossings, as our intersections aren’t busy enough. We have pressure pads that sense if you’re still there or not. If you’re not, the cycle is cancelled.
The thing that gets me is people who, just as your article suggests – believe that smacking the shit out of the crossing button 100 times will make it go faster.
I sometimes wish that the ‘man in the remote control office’ existed there, so s/he could cancel the cycle every time she molested that poor button.
Meh, this article is really proud of itself.
This article could be more ‘meaty’. It is so unnecessarily verbose… and only gives three examples?!?
Of the examples mentioned here I can definitely say that the thermostat and the elevator ‘close’ button at work and most of the places where I’ve been before definitely work. I’m not too sure about noise generators to induce us into thinking the air con or heating are working because it would so soon become apparent that they aren’t. Sounds like it’s too complicated to be true. You see, the people who decide on this type of things work there too!
However, I do find that many of the buttons for pedestrians to press to get the green light are dummy. It’s funny because in some places they never, ever worked… whilst in others, they’ve been working for decades…
Am I the only human on Earth that understands how basic electronic items work? Buttons? Really? That much of a mystery? Google it if such a simple contraption baffles you. The INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY is here to provide you with any information you could possibly think of, and then some. And yes, I’m going to have to agree with everyone saying that this article is quite full of itself, or the writer rather. Pushing a button multiple times, as shown as example with cross-walk buttons, obviously doesn’t make the object work faster, but people do it because pushing a button is satisfactory. Try it! Take a key off your keyboard and put it on an inanimate object you’ll see many times in the day. You will not be able to NOT push it, in spite of its uselessness. And a great big fuck you to the douche-bag that gave this a thumbs up via StumbleUpon. (yes, I’m looking at you, flyingcloud46)
I have a Staples “That was easy” button that proves this – it’s amazing how many people have to hit that button.
this article is crap. No one uses fake thermostats, and crosswalk buttons work.
This article’s responses are a good example of the occasionally stated comment : “If you take your clothes off in public, some will take pictures and others will throw water”. Starting your column by saying “you are not so smart” is going to all by itself generate criticism and doubt, while at the same time get others to roll over in humility.
However by weeding out the obvious over-reactors I was able to learn from the responses as well as the article. Especially I liked the comment that often it is less costly to just push the button than assume it is a placebo and risk missing out on its effectiveness. That seems also to be consistent with the observation by behaviorists that rewarding ‘good’ behavior sometimes but not always is the most effective method for getting a desired behavior.
Perhaps the page would do better with “a celebration of self delusion” as the main title and “you are not so smart” as the subtext. Still effective as an attention getter but perhaps drawing a more open minded response. Unless, of course, you like the criticism.
Anyway, another 2 cents.
@Dylan – Most of these negative comments are people missing the point of the blog and misreading its tone. This was an early post, and I think I may have ironed out the best way to present the topics since this one was written. I still stand behind it though. I’ve gone back and added more links at the end showing that, yes, placebo buttons are real and the examples in the article are accurate.
well said it is an article for a bit fun not a race debate
This list is a pile of crap. Close door buttons absolutely work in elevators (as do open door buttons) and crosswalk buttons often, if not always, serve the purpose of signaling for the traffic light that there are people waiting to cross, thereby activating the crosswalk signal. If you do not press the button, the crosswalk is not activated and the traffic light only changes for a short period of time, not long enough for someone to cross the street. Who is smarter now?
“Graphic designers and video editors often assign a key on their computer keyboards to do absolutely nothing…” That sounds slightly made up.
@Darren – It isn’t. I have had coworkers who did this very thing.
There just buttons man wtf, this article is pointless.
If you don’t press the traffic lights where i am the lights don’t change, and on most new light aswell.
@splam – I urge you to check out the links section of this article to see many examples of placebo traffic buttons.
I think McRaney Is encompassing operant conditioning in relation to placebo buttons. As opposed to the significance of just pressing a button. Honestly either way i’d still suggest it is significant (in response to splam) because it’s just another way people manipulate other people, just so we feel the comfort of being in control. Personally before I had even read any of the initial posts (which would include the responses people have left as well) just previewing the trailer for the book with the drawn target and I believe that should cover the vast majority of the negative posts in response to your article. We are ALL just conditioned individuals looking for a pattern, or we already accept that they are influencing the “consequence” by their act of pressing a button or fidgeting with something.. which for the most part is false.
I find it amusing that a majority (it would be too vast an overgeneralization to say all) of the negative feedback does miss the initial point of the article. WHICH would be a matter of psychology and conditioning as opposed to which buttons work where you live. Everyone tries to argue and bicker based upon what they feel is their personal experience which doesn’t relate internationally (to placebo buttons as we have noticed through different feedbacks from readers). All in all I like the article and i look forward to reading your book.
“…one HVAC specialist surmises 90 percent of all office thermostats are fake (others say it’s more like 2 percent). ”
Did the author mean it’s more like 98%, or is there really that wide a difference in opinion? Because if it’s the latter, that throws the article into doubt.
I have to agree with Darren about the Graphic Designer / Video Editor button. I’m a graphic designer and I’ve never heard of anyone that’s created a “placebo button.” Maybe you know of people who use this trick, but I don’t think it’s a common practice. I also don’t know of anyone that would allow a client to hover over their shoulder as they work…
Other than that, I thought this was a good article – I don’t understand why people are getting so upset about it! I’ve heard that the elevator close button didn’t do anything, but not about the crosswalks. Very interesting!
I’m a graphic designer too and I think you just missed the point. It doesn’t even need to be an actual “button”, it’s more about taking an action, expecting a specific result or reward and then assuming what you get is what you wanted though it may be the same as it was and/ or just have nothing to do with your action. Perhaps a more common example would be if a client makes a ridiculous request like “can you nudge the logo up just like 3 pixels?” or “can you make the turquoise a little more blue than green?” then the designer sends the “revision” back, having really changed nothing and the client loves it. Same concept which I think this post is really trying to convey – a concept.
The buttons at intersections that are puhed by peestrians work to ensure that the walk signal comes on when the appropriate light turns green. They don’t just do nothing. Also, in many cities there are trafic signals just for crosswalks. At these lights pressing the button will trigger the light to switch to yellow, then red so the pedestrian can cross.
HAHA. This reminds me of when I was recording bands and we’d spend a bunch of time getting their headphone mixes right . . . and invariably there was always one person who wanted a little more of this, a little more of that. Eventually we’d just cut their sound, *pretend* to turn some buttons and then ask them “How’s that?”, almost always we’d get, “Perfect!”
Sorry, you are completely wrong about crosswalk buttons. The walk signal doesn’t turn on if you don’t push it. This isn’t my mind playing a trick on me, it’s a simple fact learned from experience of sometimes pushing it and sometimes not. From the other comments it looks like your assumption was wrong in just about every other city as well. Oops!
So, because of your limited experience and narrow-mindedness, the crosswalk example is a complete fabrication?
I didn’t read the full article, because i was too lazy, and frankly i should be studying right now. Either way, all i gotta say is, you need to press the button for your order to pop out of the vending machine, and i think we all know how a vending machine works, and you also need to press the button to call the elevator, and the close and open door buttons do actually do something. Plus, in downtown busy areas the intersection button doesn’t do much, but in more urban/uptown streets, pushing the pedestrian button actually does something. It doesn’t however change the light faster if you press it fifty times. Only once will do the trick. Either way, this article is still interesting, and fascinating to think about. I remember going to my friends apartment and pressing the elevator button, but since it was old there was no light around it and you couldn’t tell if you actually called the elevator or not, so it made me unsure about the elevator and i pressed the button a couple more times. The light around the elevator button, assures me that what i just did is working and that an elevator is on its way.
at a high rise where i work, the “close” button on the elevator really does work. it will instantly close the doors.
I’m getting a kick out of reading the ‘not so smart’ people reply blindly.
In some places, cross/walk is automated. Just because it doesn’t happen on your corner doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen in say, Times Square.
Not ALL buttons are false, but some sure are.
@bakedpotatoes – Yep.
There an old saying that we like to use in the data world: anecdotes are not statistics. Amazingly enough, you could say that something occurs 9,999 out of 10,000 times and someone will inevitably find that ONE example and hold it up as proof that your statistics are wrong.
Its even more likely when 10,000 people read the article. Yet the one outlier gets noticed and the other 9,999 other examples which SUPPORT the original statistic get ignored – the fallacy of silent evidence at work – because nobody cares about the ordinary every cases.
Having said that – no matter how many counter examples are posted – the original point of the entire post is still valid. Placebo buttons do exist, and we push them because we are conditioned to, not because they will actually work.
FTW?
Trying to say what exactly?
Hey there,
I just stumbled over your blog for the first time. Liked the post.
I still think that the blog’s title might not be a very good choice. Of course, it is provocative and ensures instant attention. On the other hand, I started to wonder: why would a guy, who is writing about buttons that acutally do not work, have the right to make a judgement about my intellect? Especially when he is just stating something that is obvious (the traffic lights example) or banal (which could be said about the whole post). These questions altered my opinion of the post, wich is – just left alone – a quite nice one.
To put it in a more abstract and short way: the blog’s title sets a high bar, thereby raising promises this post simply can’t fulfill.
Anyhow, I am going to explore some of your other posts,
Julian
@JulienLeMecDéchiré – Yes, please explore, and try to have fun here. Not all posts are going to be lengthy ruminations on the meaning of consciousness. Some are just about buttons.
Odd that “Julien” misspelled his own name.
Hold on here; most of the examples that you describe are actually no real placebo buttons/mechanisms, save for the explicitly installed non-working thermostats. For instance, most elevator “close” buttons DO work, there is only the prerequisite of a service key being present/turned. Pedestrian crossing buttons are no placebo buttons either, since they were not *explicitly installed as such*; they are simply relics of a time when said buttons actually functioned (they are probably still connected, only their signaling is ignored). Again, simply because they weren’t removed (that would have been quite expensive) they are not automatically elevated to placebo buttons; they are merely non-functional buttons. And the non-functioning key example (presumably assigned by graphic designers and/or video editors)? Well, if it shows a blank screen, it actually does something, hence, it’s not a placebo button. And if it does nothing at all, do you honestly expect me to believe that a client looking over a designer’s/editor’s shoulder will be convinced that his change request has just been implemented by the mere press of a single button? I know that the vast majority of people out there are not the brightest crayons in the box, but this is stretching it.
Do you have a source on elevator buttons? I see a significant difference between not pushing them and pushing them in a lot of elevators I travel in. I make a habit of hitting my floor followed by the close door button, and so I’m pretty aware of when the door responds and when there’s a pause. I tend to assume the pause means it doesn’t work, but most of the time the door closes instantly.
@John – Check the links at the end.
OR…the door closed because you got on the elevator, and it won’t change floors without a closed door.
BE curious if everybody here who CLAIMS that close door buttons actually work have actually taken it upon themselves to actually TIME the difference between a door closing by itself automatically and a door being prompted to close by pressing a button. I suspect people aren’t as smart as they think and the time really is the same.
After all, most doors we encounter require some action to open or close. Elevator doors close automatically, so this seems to be a perfect situation for most of us to be fooled by placebos.
Isn’t that exactly what they want you to think though?
Yes, people do in fact use fake thermostats.
My mother’s workplace has one “installed”. There was a man putting in on the wall while I was there.
He told me not to tell, but I’m telling you because you sound like someone needs to tell you off and prove you wrong.
If you don’t like the post, why did you read it, and why did you waste your life on something you don’t enjoy?
;)
These posts are pure genius. Love it.
hahahahaha this is why i hate psycology* (and still cant spell it). people analyzing bullshit, people spending too much time thinking of buttons, yes it does something asshole, its a chain reaction. this article is just another example of over thinking nothing. put your effort into an alternative fuel source asshole. jesus christ!
I’m not sure what to think… ok, I am sure what to think. The title is more than a little insulting, especially since it can so easily be turned on the author. This seems to be based only on anecdotal evidence and stories, so I guess I can only offer my own experience in response.
As near as I can tell, I have yet to come across a single “placebo” button in an elevator or crosswalk. Maybe it’s because I live in a smaller town and not a huge city, but where I seem to go, buttons do what they are supposed to. While my local crosswalk may not IMMEDIATELY give me a chance to cross during the day, it DOES at night, when there’s no traffic.
I suspect the author might live in a large city, where, I’ve noticed, these triggers really aren’t useful. I know in Toronto, Hong Kong, Tokyo, the timing for people to cross the street is built in. Maybe this makes a person think the buttons do nothing?
And incidentally, I also have yet to be in an elevator where the “door close” button didn’t do anything either. Maybe I’m just lucky that way.
But no matter how anyone looks at this, in the off-chance I ever DID press a “placebo button” in my life, I seriously doubt that alone earns me a “not so smart” rating. That’s just ridiculous.
Now, if we look closely at who voted in our “placebo government”………….
This argument is pointless really. I live in the UK right, some of the buttons at crossings dont do anything because the lights change anyway to control the traffic. Obviously buttons on pedestrian crossings work because they only change when a pedestrian wants to cross. Whats the big deal with that?
Also its probably some elevator buttons work and some dont. But its not because they are placebo buttons its because they are there for the engineers to use. People only press the button because they dont realise it wont work without a key, as a lot of these buttons do actually work.
I have no comment on the thermostat thing because I have no idea, I can imagine it may happen occassionally but its certainly not commonplace. I for one would realise if the heating wasnt working at work!
I enjoyed the comments on here probably more than the post. Its not a bs post. It just puts a thought provoking spin on something thats really pretty obvious. Cleverly written article.. I mean it got us all commenting right?
I’m not sure if this is completely valid, but holding down the Close Door button will supposedly cause the elevator to skip stops. I’ve only used it once or twice (because I’m not that big of a dick), but it did work, especially considering how crowded the hotel was at the time.
practical!
“Graphic designers and video editors often assign a key on their computer keyboards to do absolutely nothing, or to make the screen go blank for a few moments”
anyone know what button this is?
This reminds me of an old (1994) website called “the big red button that doesn’t do anything”. Here’s a link to a page about it:
http://www.pixelscapes.com/spatulacity/button.htm
The button that makes the screen go blank DOES something.
No?
Calling these a “placebo” carries the implication that people are producing fake buttons with the intent to deceive, but I do not believe this to be true.
Here is the deal with elevators. Section 4.10.6 of the Americans with Disabilities Act has two requires that are relevant to door closing: 1. The door must open and close automatically if not prompted to do so, and 2. If a re-open is requested, it must stay open for a total of twenty seconds regardless of any button pushes. The simplest way to comply with this is to disable the close button and make open/closing automatic. This is not explicitly required though. For example, if a door has opened, but not been called to a new floor, and 20 seconds has passed, it is compliant to make the close button close the door at that point. Also, these buttons can be enabled by service technicians by accessing the panel with a key. This is commonly done when a lot of loading/unloading is being done on a service elevator because automatic open/closing is very inconvenient. It is preposterous to imply that elevator companies are making fake buttons to produce some Pavlovian effect.
I have no doubt that companies with climate control systems disable the controls on thermostats to prevent employees from messing with them. I find it highly dubious that many companies (if any at all) go out of their way to install “fake” ones. These thermostats also serve the purpose of, you know, showing you what the temperature is. The sources given for this bit of just so story seem apocryphal, or highly exaggerated at best.
So many people react negatively to this article. I think its because they want to prove that they’re smarter than you think. Listen to me: I’m smarter than you.
The point made at the beginning of the article is the point you all seem to have forgotten by the end of it: YOU JUST DON’T KNOW. You think it works, you think it doesn’t work. But that’s all you can do. You open it up, find some wires. What do they do? You think they make it work, you think they do jack. But you don’t know. You think you have proven that it works, maybe a guy in a building above every intersection is paid just to prove you worng, whatever you’re trying to prove. Incredibly unlikely, but you just don’t know.
I’m a sound engineer. I have 2 faders and 2 knobs on each of my boards that do absolutely nothing. They even have LEDs that go on and off with signal. It’s funny to watch people fiddle with them with immense concentration until they get the “desired effect.” My friend labelled one “DNM”: Do Nothing Machine.
I live in Sydney, Aus. It’s a very busy city ( like New York), and NONE of the intersection buttons have been proven to work. None of them. Which leads me to believe they do not. I’ve believed this for as long as I’ve lived here – 20 years – and after a bet with my friend, I tested it with random location tests throughout the city, to the point where I actually stopped people from doing it via “out of order” signs. The streets are so busy that all of the lights in the intersection, traffic and pedestrian, are all timed. In Brisbane it is the same. That bet is what led me to this page. I have 150 Australian Dollars proving me “righter than you.”
The lifts (elevators) in my building do NOT close any faster after the button. I’ve checked it many times on various days as an experimental replicant, even in other buildings. They just don’t work. The timer is set and is activated by the sensor in the door. When I roadie for gigs, I’ve found some service lifts don’t close at all without the button, but I didn’t include those in my layman’s research.
I have no idea whether the thermostat statement is true.
..but neither do you.
I lived in a high-rise dorm when I was in college (10 floors, 24 rooms per floor). Each room had a thermostat, but the system was central HVAC. FWIW, one of the workers from the Physical Plant told me that only three of the thermostats were “live”, and all the rest were placebo. All I can say is that turning the thermostat didn’t seem to do much in my room (other than hearing the little “hiss”).
@David McRaney
I personally was not in the least bit offended, insulted, or wounded by the title of the article. In fact, I found the subtle connection between the title and the use of the word “placebo” to describe defunct buttons a rather charming way to implicate the basic human’s standing as a trussed up lab rat. Sadly, a few too many passersby decided to utterly duck the point and get all, “eff u ur an ideeot,” and stuff.
—–
@StephenW
I had something longer typed here, but I think I’ll just go with “thank you.”
—-
And certainly not least, because I couldn’t help myself…
@ jkrew, July 1, 2010 12:57 am: “you write like a prick.”
You write like a neanderthal.
“So many people react negatively to this article. I think its because they want to prove that they’re smarter than you think. Listen to me: I’m smarter than you.”
I found it an enjoyable read, but it was short on facts and the framing was disingenuous. A placebo is prescribed with the express intent to deceive (albeit for arguably justifiable reasons). Using this term to describe buttons that don’t work — combined with the suggestion of Pavlovian response feedback — ignores the reality of why these buttons are disabled in so many cases. That would have been useful information for the article.
I feel this is a valid criticism of a blog post that claims intellectual superiority over its readers. Sorry, you gotta eat your own dog food sometimes.
Very interesting article :) I like it
“The magic between the button press and the result you want is all in your head. You never catch on – because you are not so smart.”
Well done dave you’re really winning your readers over by belittling them. Do not generalize 6 billion + people, the only reason someone would generalize that many people would be, oh yeh “because you are not so smart.” You make some fair points but I think you oversimplify things and show a clear disdain for the human race.
In other countries our buttons do actually work, when I press the lift door button, the door definitely closes quicker, when I change the thermostat, the heat definitely changes. It’s sad to think that Americans would be duped by a fake thermostat with a fan generator noise, if someone tried to pull that shit on workers in England we would not stand for it. Thing is I don’t think I’m going generalize 300 million + Americans, let alone 6 billion + humans.
Seriously, Cheer Up.
Again, basic behavior analysis just flies over the heads of people who believe data is the plural of anecdote/personal experience. Placebo is the perfect word to describe pedestrian buttons which were once functional but are no longer hooked to the reward system – the “functional” relationship between button-pushing behavior and the light changing outcome is nonexistent, but the power of the reinforcer, the light change, maintains the pushing behavior. Like a placebo pill, it has all the trappings of a functional relationship so your mind will fill the gap and lead you to believe the relationship between button pushing and light changing is causal.
Another great example of a placebo button are patient controlled morphine drips – they’re usually set to a timer that will only dispense the drug after certain intervals. Patients are not made privy to this schedule and will tell you they get the good juice every time they push the button. The power of your brain should not be underestimated, particularly when you’re brain is telling you you live in an orderly, consequence based world.
I think people need to let go of their pride and just admit that they are “not so smart.” It’s annoying to read comments denying any of this is real when there is evidence presented right before them.
Socrates was deemed wise because he was capable of accepting that he wasn’t. It’s an ego thing that we tend to fail to get past,
er… actually we do know how a vending machine works. At least most of us do.
But i totally agree that we shouldn’t have “button conditioning” would be so much better if we replaced buttons with … “lick pads” or something. That would be sensible – who wan to use fingers to operate anything. Not us! No Sir! Those fingers and thumbs are useless – lets go back to fins or something…. but then i bet some smart bugger will com up with …fin-slap conditioning.
I love that everyone is stuck on the crosswalk button example and completely ignoring the rest of it. HERPDERP.
Interesting read. I enjoyed it. :]
I thought the lack of crosswalk button function was common knowledge. Meanwhile, how can you say that door close buttons in elevators are usually disabled? what city is this information taken from? if you have been in more than one elevator, you’ll obviously know that they function perfectly well.
your elevator button picture is lacking all floor buttons containing 4 including the buttons for floor 4, 14 and 24?
bullshit
Perhaps placebo thermostats occur due to additions or modifications to the A/C system. The new thermostat ends up being placed in a different location for any number of reasons (convenience of installation, customer request, better placement, etc…) and for whatever reason, the technician just doesn’t remove the old one.
It would seem that an inoperative thermostat looks better than a hole in the wall exposing a pair of protruding wires , conspicuously framed by a small square of un-faded (or differently tinted) paint.
I once saw an installation where there was a new, digital thermostat about ten feet from the old, now disconnected, analog dial thermostat.
i live in manhattan and i have to concur with david the author that most close door buttons here in the city of elevators do not close the door when pushed. i live in a highrise as do a lot of people i know and travel as many miles in elevators as i do subways. but the close door button is not totally without function. in almost every elevator, at least where i’ve tried it, if you hold the close door button and the floor you’re going to and keep them pressed down for the entire trip; you will express to your floor. when i say express i don’t mean it will go faster but it won’t stop on any other floor even if people on other floors have signaled it. the truth is that it can take forever to get from a high floor to the street in crowded buildings when people are going to work and this trick will get you down without stopping for anyone else. this isn’t something i do with any regularity, if i did i would be an asshole, but when i found out about it i tested it all over town and in a few other buildings in other american cities and it seemed to work every time.
as to your photo of the elevator panel that is lacking the buttons for the fourth, 14th and 24th floors; it is most likely an elevator in an asian city or one with a large asian population where people have tetraphobia (fear of the number four) and usually omit floors with that number because people feel it would be unlucky to live or do business on a floor with a four. westerners have a similar phobia of thirteen (triskaidekaphobia) and many buildings go from floor 12 to 14 with no 13th floor. i saw a few buildings in toronto that catered to both western and asian silly fears and had no fourth or thirteenth floors but allowed for the 14th and 24th. in fact most residential towers here in new york omit a thirteenth floor. it’s all well and good but are the folks who live on the floor above the twelfth floor really believing they’re living on the fourteenth level?
Dear Jeff,
If you are going to quote the editor, you should probably make sure what you are quoting is what the editor actually said. He never said that “All crosswalk buttons are disabled” It was stated that MOST crosswalk buttons were disabled….com’on now
To clear up this crosswalk situation, I agree with the author on the fact that most crosswalk buttons don’t do a thing… However late at night on many heavy traffic streets the lights will only turn green if either a car is registered waiting at the perpendicular stop of the heavy traffic through weight sensors or whatever they use OR if a pedestrian presses the crosswalk button.
Id also like to comment that many of the ABC news reports try to be as shocking as possible, so I wouldn’t exactly use them as a reliable source for all the facts…
I forgot to add this little nifty trick with elevators. Police and other emergency responders use this to get to the floor of the emergency quicker.
All you have to do is hold the close button on the elevator and floor number until door closes. This will take you straight to your destination without stops.
Alex K. You are wrong. there are no metal detectors under the street. There are solenoids and solenoids in cars. when a car pulls up to the light the solenoid under the street registers a change in the B field and changes the light.
Daniel: interesting article. Fun to read. Made me think. Isn’t that good enough for the haters?
Weird that it caused a furore.
For your info, I have found that many people in London are starting to believe that the stop button at traffic lights does nothing.
IT DOES DO SOMETHING.
It just depends on the location. Some intersections will cycle continuously in a pattern that allows traffic to move effectively without ever allowing people to cross. This is true if there are filter lanes. At these you must press the button.
Others will cycle and allow people to cross at every repeat. In this case, the button may have little or no effect.
Some people press nothing, and then just run across when it is clear. This is inconsiderate to those behind them, who may be slow or frail. I always press the buttons because it seems considerate and right to do so. It is socially responsible, like queuing up or being kind. Is that weird?
Jezebel: re PCA (patient controlled analgesia). In my experience of nursing, I have set up many PCA pumps. You are right that the dose interval is timed to prevent an overdose. However I would consider it a breach of patient trust and a serious ethical issue if patients were not informed about this delay. I have always explained it fully, as have all of my colleagues. Morphine is a powerful drug and lying to patients is very dangerous. Some patients with PCA may also have dementia or encephalopathy or brain tumours and as such may forget about the delay. These people may press the button repeatedly and never fully understand, remember or even be aware that they are not getting their dose. It is not a placebo button – surely it is exactly the opposite? A medicine button? Just a thought.
I hope that you or your colleagues are not misleading your patients.
I am sure you aren’t really, are you?
Please don’t.
Doesn’t this make you feel a little insulted?
Lied to?
Alienated?
Like a lab rat?
I’ve read about it elsewhere; don’t like it. Still push them sometimes though. It helps me be more patient. It’s okay as long as they tell us, I suppose.
So, Ben – have you gone and dug up EVERY SINGLE INTERSECTION IN THE WORLD?
No?
So, no authority to say that there are NO metal detectors then.
Some have them. Some have pressure sensors. Some have solenoid technology. Some have nothing and are completely automated. There is more of a world than just from your house to the grocery store.
“For instance, the close buttons don’t close the elevator doors …”
Not sure about you, but they all work correctly in my university’s elevators.
Door opens, wait 10 seconds, closes automatically.
vs
door opens, wait 1 seconds, press button, door closes instantly.
I really liked this article. It’s really interesting to think about the placement of placebo ‘buttons,’ particularly the thermostat. It’s kind of ingenious if you ask me. I might have to pay more attention to that in the future.
However, there is one thing I’m not sure I agree on. Or maybe I’m the only one who thinks about cross-walk buttons this way? But there are certain crosswalks that do, in fact, require you to press the button in order for there to be a walk sign. And so for me, because I’ve been left stranded at the opposite side of the road that I want to be on, instead of waiting to figure out if this light does or does not respond to the button press I’d rather press it and be ensured that I will be able to cross when the next available time arises. However, there are definitely crosswalk buttons that do nothing. I fully agree. But I’m thinking that I’m probably not the only person that thinks this way. It’s easier to just press the button and be ensured the walk across, than having to wait forever.
Ok wait, sorry, I know just commented, but baked potatoes– seriously? I just read your argument:
“have you gone and dug up EVERY SINGLE INTERSECTION IN THE WORLD?
No?
So, no authority to say that there are NO metal detectors then.”
That’s like saying because we haven’t proven that couches can’t spontaneously change colors, doesn’t mean they can’t. Now I’m not saying that I don’t agree with the conclusion of your argument (I have no idea, to be honest). But your argument itself is flawed.
Learn some theory of knowledge and try again.
Good point, Buttons. Flawed, but I stand by the fact he cannot know.
As a building engineer of a large, 450k square foot office building, I can tell you that we do not employ any “fake thermostats”.
I think the confusion is whether a tenant has control over the thermostat or not.
In most large office buildings and office parks, the properties use a DCC sytem to control climate inside of their buildings. This is controlled by a central computer system and requires thermostats to measure the temperature of that zone and report back to the central computer. Engineers have pre-programmed the T-stats to a specific temperature or range and the computer then tells the system how much air, heat or cooling to deliver to that zone.
Depending on the brand of the system, these T-stats might have controls on them that will allow a tenant to “adjust”, but most of the time that capability has been locked out or overridden. The T-stat is still functional, just not adjustable.
I always had heard those crosswalk buttons didn’t do anything, but I never had any proof…UNTIL NOW! Thank you for this great article that will allow be to laugh at the unsuspecting public who continues to push all those useless buttons. :D
I appreciate the placebo effect. I push the crosswalk button as much as possible as fast as possible until I get the white people.
So hilarious the number of people who aim to ‘PROVE YOU WRONG!!!’.
Funny how we hang onto the belief between our own actions and their cause and effect so stringently. As if having these placebo buttons not do anything might destroy the fundamental importance of our lives.
The truth is, so much of life (just like those little crosswalk buttons) is beyond our control, and its just important to remember that the things that are within our control are generally those we take for granted.
This is the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever seen. I work in a new office building and the close door button definitely works on the elevator. The city I live in came out publicly and requested citizens to make note of intersections that turn red for the main street when there was no traffic or pedestrians because it meant the crosswalk button was broken. I stopped reading after that. The real placebo here is this mindless article.
This is very funny and much of it I have found to be true. But either way, buttons are fun to push. It’s funny people get so offended when you say they are not smart.
As a building engineer with over 26 years of experience, and a certified elevator mechanic, I can personally vouch that the close door button on an elevator — especially any new elevator system does not do anything. There is no function programmed into the controller system for the manual closing of the door. In order to do that, it would have to bypass all of the safety and proximity sensors and thereby defeating their purpose. Every state, along with the federal government has strict regulations prohibiting all of this.
Ahh, the DFA button, probably one of the most useful buttons a sound engineer has (other than ‘mute’).
James Gleick’s FASTER talked about those buttons such as close door being stress vectors for alpha males back in the 90s.
I do enjoy watching people who smugly wait for the automatic changing at the lights though…at a crossing without a road junction, or one I know that does need to be pushed. Agreed some at say crossroads are automatic, but quite a few aren’t here in the UK, as well as lifts that don’t automatically come, close buttons that do actually work and sadly AC thermostats that work (if I get pneumonia it’ll be the permanently hot women – and it’s always women, why is that? turning it onto Artic mode)
Great article!
I’ve suspected for years that in many (but not all) pedestrian crossings in London, the button does nothing (other than light up the “please wait” light). There’s a set of 3 traffic lights I cycle past frequently. One controls the flow of traffic into a side road, and the following two are purely pedestrian crossings. No matter how many people are queued up at the crossings (having presumably pressed the button), those lights always follow the first set with exactly the same timings.
The bit about sound engineers is definitely true as well: I once worked in a video production facility with a sound engineer who had a special filter he’d run for especially picky clients who felt that the mix needed a little something extra. He even had it labelled with its name: the DFA filter. DFA stood for “Does Fuck All” :)
oh yes the DFA filter. Yup not called it that but I’m guesing everyone in the interactive media/video edit/sound business has done the ‘send it back with no changes and it gets accepted with the comment ‘much better! trick’ – I’ve done it by accident, sending the wrong version. Just shows you clients change stuff usually for the sake of changing/feeling involved, and usually aren’t paying that much attention, or think you have some magic pixie dust to spread…
My favourite placebo button (mainly because it took me a while to catch on) is the ‘open’ button on the London Underground. Great seeing tourists frantically pushing it when it just sits there looking at them with complete apathy.
Main downside is it takes me a while to adjust when catching proper trains and I have been known to stare vacantly at a door waiting for it to open whilst a keen door open button blinks away untouched.
As a student of psychology who has also taken countless classes on behavior psychology (and IO psychology) these sort of principles have always fascinated me. It just goes to show how such simple ideas and behavioral concepts really do affect us in everyday life!
Thanks for the article! Sent it to my friends…
The DFA button is pretty widespread in pro audio. I used to work as a repair engineer for pro studios and have visited many of the largest studios in the world. Before that I worked for the one of the main manufacturers of audio recording consoles. The classic G-Series console is a 1970s design which has been used to record many a hit record. There is a specific button near the master-fader in the centre section of the console which, when pressed, reassuringly lights up, until you press it again, when it goes out. In the factory where they are made, this was widely referred to as the DFA button, since it Does Fuck All.
I saw it in use a couple of times during a mixing session, and it definitely increased the warmth in the final mix. Or something.
David,
I tried to read through all of the comments to see if anyone else brought this up, but frankly it just became too daunting a task. Just wanted to tell you that the crosswalk buttons are, in the traffic industry, known as “Ped Calls” and that one option of the computer-controlled intersection is to have that button actually trigger the next step in the intersection cycle so that pedestrians can cross when there is no cross-traffic but the light has not yet changed. It’s called a “Ped Override.” My wife has been a software engineer in the traffic industry for 15 years, and no one’s ever requested a placebo button from her company. ;)
I know, it’s an early article. You’re more diligent now. I can tell. Keep it up. :D
From my own semi-scientific study, I’ve found that all of the pedestrian crossings and lift close buttons in my local area work.
I absolutely agree. I worked at a bar/pool hall for a few years, that was decorated with all kinds of stuff on the walls. One of the decorations adorning the areas near most pool tables was a fake doorbell that had a sign reading, “push for rack girl”. customers, even regulars, would frequently push the button repeatedly, knowing damn well it went to nothing (or perhaps thinking it would bring me running). whenever i would make my rounds asking if anyone needed a beverage they would undoubtedly chuckle and proudly inform me they had been pushing the button, and ask me where i’d been. i cannot stress how obnoxious this was… it seemed like they felt that they had to push the button, and bring this to my attention as though they were the first people to ever come up with this amazing joke… so glad i no longer work there! :)
This is stupid the crosswalk buttons obviously do something… Everytime I dont press them the light turns green and I get a stop hand. If I press them, the light turns green and I get a walk signal… This is practically everywhere I go..
You must live in the midwest or deep south or something
Alex, _you_ are stupid, if you think the whole world works just like your little corner.
Also, aren’t the deep south and the mid west LESS likely to have automated civilian services?
Agreed it’s too daunting to check all the comments, but I did try.
The science — or at least the critical thinking that goes into the science — is defective.
People don’t necessarily push the button for the placebo effect. They don’t necessarily push it because they believe they’re getting a result from their action.
The thesis is missing the learning aspect of the behavior. If the behavior hadn’t been rewarded in the past, it wouldn’t be repeated. It was rewarded in the past because at some point in their experience, pushing a button did close their elevator door or light their pedestrian “go” sign.
If the behavior had never been rewarded, the behavior would never have been repeated.
At many points in my life the “close” button closed elevator doors. The fact that I keep pushing the button on new elevators owes to my not learning that all “close” buttons are now disabled.
I do notice the lag between button push and door close. But since I can’t know if all buttons are that slow (or broken), I continue to try.
When the door doesn’t close, the behavior begins to extinguish.
I wish I could give you the “not so smart,” but testing to see if a behavior will repeat is the very essence of cognitive as well as behavioral activity.
For instance, since I believe I have nothing to lose by pressing the close button on an elevator, and since it has worked for me at some time in my life, I consider pressing it again.
Now I have to weigh the sheer torture of exerting all that button-closing-energy against the seemingly decreasing likelihood that expending the energy will deliver a result.
This is not behavioral science, it’s cognitive reasoning. The cognition is missing from the thesis.
A THING YOU DIDN’T NOTICE IS THAT THE ELEVATOR BUTTONS ON THE PICTURE DON’T HAVE THE NUMBERS 4, 14 AND 24 BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE HAVE PHOBIA FROM THE NUMBER 4.
i like your site a lot
BOOOOORINGGGGG ….
The thermostat in my office hisses once you reach a certain temperature… I hope I didn’t just ruin it for myself.
What’s with the elevator in that photo? The building lacks a 4th, 14th and 24th floor?
As a child, I didn’t understand that elevators move vertically. I thought that everything outside of an elevator was quickly—magically—rearranged itself when the buttons in the elevator were pressed.
The fact that placebo buttons exist is pretty interesting, but I have personally not encountered any of them. In my town, the Walk signs will not come on unless you press the button. Every time I’ve bothered to use the Close Door button, it closed the doors immediately. The thermostat in my office works, and I know that because I’m the one that has to turn it up and down when the weather changes. No one can say to me: you only think that you know that these things work, but you can’t really know for sure. Um, yes I can.
“Maybe there’s a man inside who pulls out the can of soda and puts it in the chute. Maybe there’s a camera watching the machine, and someone in a distant control room tells the machine to dispense your pop.”
But… that’s not what’s happening. I DO know what’s going on inside that machine, so I don’t really get the point of this.
In response to Brian (regarding the creation of gods): that is so true, and it reminds me of my favorite part of Blake’s “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. It’s long, but relevant, I think:
“The ancient poets animated all sensible objects with gods or geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged & numerous senses could perceive. And particularly they studied the genius of each city & country, placing it under its mental deity; till a system was formed, which some took advantage of & enslav’d the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects: thus began priesthood; choosing forms of worship from poetic tales. And at length they pronounc’d that the gods had order’d such things. Thus men forgot that all deities reside in the human breast.”
It’s so funny that so many of these ignorant (in the neutral sense) beliefs, whether in elevator buttons or in gods, persist to this day with little rational basis. Sure, not all triggers are placebos, but we never bother to figure out which ones. It’s the same mindset the religious take when they speak of “faith.”
nosecohn, The elevator shown may be in Korea or elsewhere in Asia. Because the number 4 is associated with death due to variations in pronunciation, it is sometimes replaced with an “F” or skipped entirely in numbering of floors, not unlike the lack of a room #13 or a 13th floor in some Western buildings.
Number 4 when spoken in Mandarin or Cantonese, it sounds like death. Sometimes it is replaced with 3A or something similar after the number 3.
David, have you read “Talent Code”…the book by Daniel Coyle?
The “conditioning” you mention. What happens when we do something repeatedly, such as touch buttons, and get a certain result is that something called “myelin” is being wrapped in our brains. Each time we do something a certain way, more and more myelin is wrapped and it becomes easier and easier for us to whatever it is we keep doing over and over.
It’s good for the good things we are doing, but bad for the bad things. What you said about conditioning sparked the thought. It’s a great article!
WoW this is really good idea heheh…….
I loved this thought-provoking article and focused on the big picture: we are programmable, we are the product of our environment, and most of the time we are unaware we are being conditioned. It is amusing that some people cannot get past the details while others feel personally attacked. But then, again, we are the product of our environment.
Thanks for writing the article and citing the examples. I especially liked the analogy of placebo buttons and superstition, the real support, cause and perpetuation of organized religion.
Jeff shutup. your trying too hard to sound smart.
I’ve always been the type to press every button around me (especially the big red ones), but instead of comfort or satisfaction my brain gets from it, i think that the excitement and curiosity that maybe one day that button will do something amazing and change my life, so even if these buttons are just there to comfort my stupid brain, i am going to continue to press them.
way to make some really really broad generalizations from a few specific incidents. I don’t buy your psuedo science.
Its famous Pavlov experiment, or anchoring in NLP
thanks for nice post
It would because of this “mental condition” that I like Blackberry the most over iPhone, maybe because the second don’t have buttons?
Whatever building that elevator picture came from apparently has no fourth floor.
There’s no 14 or 24 either Popeye…
Did anyone else notice that the elevator included a 13th floor but excluded the 14th floor?
Seems like some people still think that these placebo buttons still do something…
This is an interesting and fun article!
My experience in Austin has been that all cross walk buttons work. I have yet to try one that didn’t, and I walk a great deal.
Also, I have never pressed an elevator open door button that didn’t work, and I use elevators almost every day, and in dozens of different buildings. I’ve seen problems with old service elevators, but not usually anything to do with buttons not working.
I have been performing repairs and installation in relation to various technologies my whole life and I find it extremely rare that a push button does not work. That being said, I do see all kinds of technology failing all around me, so at least for me, the ‘placebo’ button concept would serve as a kind of metaphor for technology in general, that our expectations of working are strong. People perceiving coincidences as being causally related is common, false positives… And certainly technology is an area in which this occurs. Computers and their rather unpredictable softwares come to mind! :-)
One perspective I would add to your story: It has been my experience that people generally have a great deal more faith in technology than those who design, install or maintain it. This certainly could be related to false pattern recognition, but is also likely a result of media myths, and the added fact that repairs are generally invisible to the user.
Technology, especially as higher levels of complexity are reached, becomes less and less reliable and increasingly expensive to maintain. This fact may have some profoundly adverse outcomes in the not too distant future. I would also assert that the level of technology and associated expense that exists today will not be sustainable over the long haul, say a few generations from now, unless some dramatic advances are made in relation to energy resource technologies, and human behaviors that affect resource demands.
Indeed, the placebo button may become an apt metaphor for the future of civilization itself.
if our minds don’t like randomness, then why do we stumble in the first place?
u r t3h retard
I pushed the Stumble! button to leave this fucking retarded post because it was.. retarded.
I am pissed off at people who are stupid and who commented on this article. Or blog post. Whatever. This post is a home run. Are the examples all based in absolute terms? Obviously not, the article never once says that “every” crosswalk button is a dummy, except perhaps in a sarcastic and condescending tone—which is an effective use of comedy. It made me smile. Most of this article made me smile. It wasn’t meant to be an attack on your sensibilities, if you think that this type of writing is “prick” like, then get the fuck off the internet. And please don’t ever talk to me again. Seriously, get a fucking sense of humor. This article is not fact rich, but that is because it is talking about a topic which is kept a secret (not actively like the Illuminati). The idea of placebo buttons is very cool. It is obviously based in fact. Whether or not every device referenced here is non-functional or not is irrelevant, the fact is that some of them are, a lot of them probably are, and we as a public are not that smart to have picked up on this fact. Deal with it. Don’t post that you “know” that buttons near you do work. That’s a stupid thing to post. Statement: Being poor is one potential cause for postpartum depression; Response: No Alex, that isn’t correct, I know a woman who just had a child and went through that, and she is very wealthy. That is a quote from my dumb ass high school psych teacher Michelle McNeil. Don’t be like her. Don’t use your one stupid example to be representative of the whole and try and argue that it single-handedly defeats this awesome idea. I love thinking about placebo buttons, I love thinking about how I’m going to tell all my friends tomorrow how stupid they are for using them, I loved reading your blog post Dave and I hate stupid people on the internet. Fuck you idiots.
Please breed with me, alexwatsonsmith. :)
I couldn’t have said that better.
Short and sweet: Take the principles here to heart and conduct your own experiments. I’ve checked elevators in three different hotels, and the button always closes the door 3-5 seconds faster.
Great article as always, but some of these myths are way too prevalent already.
@alexwatsonsmith: “Seriously, get a f***ing sense of humor”? Way to lead by example!
You’re full of shit. This site is a great example of not believing everything you read.
I almost stopped reading at “you never catch on, you’re no so smart”. That’s not a good thing to say to get readers to keep reading and you have no idea who you are talking to. How do you know I’m not a psychologist? What makes you so smart?
Anyways.. The buttons are just many an example of conditioning. As for the soda pop machine, you have to also account for the money you put in before you even push the button.
This great ad depicting a person actually being in the vending machine….
http://www.hemmy.net/2006/10/15/creative-advertisements-around-the-world/
I didnt know elevator doors had a close button, I’ve always just waited on em to close, I’ve never seen anybody push em?…Weird.
I also used to change vending machines….lol, yes the button works.
The ped crossing buttons work here in Wichita Ks also…if you dont push them the little white man doesnt show up telling you its safe to walk. You can wait there all day, but it still wont show up until you push the buttons. Im sure you can cross without it…but not everyone really pays much attention while driving. If the little dude wasnt there, I think some people might be getting ran over.
http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/3004632
That’s all a load of harmonious symphony of shit talk, buttons just it easy to access things we need… You have thought about it too much, wasted your time man!!!!
this is false. the elevator in my building and the buildings i have class in all have working door open/close buttons. we use them all the time.
what kind of moron would think that there is a man inside a soda machine or a camera watching it thats what I want to ask? (“you just dont really know” maybe you dont know! stop offending me!) is there anyone older than 8 that can even accept the idea? Another thing, if i press close door button in the elevator and it doesnt close immediately i REALIZE it doesnt work and it wasnt me that closed the door. What sort of idiot would be satisfied and actually assume that he caused that action?? is the author of the article really dumb or is he insulting an average thinking human being? i didnt even finish reading the article …
I got here — to this article, in fact — from a tweet that said something to the effect of, “Look how stupid THIS guy is.” I forgot the exact tweet, because I spent the next three hours reading!
But, since the three buttons on intersections within a few blocks of my house have a particular effect or no effect, I can definitively say with absolute certainty that these data apply to the rest of Western civilization and Antarctica. So, you are hereby branded an idiot. So there.
Really, you are smarter than me, because you already do the website I wanted to.
What kind of moron comments stupidly on an article without reading the entire piece and makes themselves look like an utter twat?
A jag333 kind of moron.
I knew those silly cross walk buttons were just placebo! Also really thought there was that little guy in the vending machine helping your soda pop on its way to you…..When I was a child heh when? I always thought there was a little guy in the boxes next to the light signals waiting to change the light and when they were having a bad day they wait that much longer he he…..and ever since my obsession of Batman begun heh Batman begun….I wanted to sneak into the Bat cave and press every button individually just to see what they all did then press them all at once and run quickly because it just might blow!!! Oh you sound engineers think you are so dang tricky….I LOVE BUTTONS THAT ACTUALLY DO THINGS NOT JUST MAKE ME THINK THEY DO THINGS ALASS I WILL MOST LIKELY PRESS AGAIN :)
come to SA, our vending machines are glass… aint no homie chillin inside…
Well, all of you managed to confuse me about the Red light buttons, so I decided to put this to the test. I walked to the main intersection nearest my house and extended my finger, I pushed the button and instantly the woman wearing the shirt this button was attached to, saw Red, she smacked me so hard on the ear that before I knew what had happened I was lying on the opposite side of the road.
I picked myself up and walked to the public toilets near by, The moment I entered the Mens toilets I could tell by the smell that the flush buttons must be Placebo buttons as well, I used the urinal and pushed the button, it was at this point that the urinal opened and 2 people with wet shoes got off and walked past me, as the elevator doors closed I left and decided to join the “Ban the Button Brigade”.
Lets face it folks, even pushing your belly button only gives you fluff.
:-) Laugh at life, it sure as heck laughs at us……….
I want to buy a used Toyota Prius and I want to know some information on the packages.
I’m from Gainesville, FL. While a few of the buttons at major crosswalks may not be functioning, if the light is green and the crosswalk status is “Do Not Cross,” pushing the button will change it immediately at small intersections.
Yeah, a decent portion of crosswalk buttons in Gainesville are functioning. There are certainly some that don’t, but the claim that only one functioning crosswalk button exists in this town is ridiculous. As Micah said, there are plenty of intersections whose crosswalk signal never changes without the button being pressed, and past a certain time there are several intersections around town that never change without a car waiting or a crosswalk button press.
Ironically, most of the crosswalk buttons around downtown and campus were recently replaced with fancy looking sensors, but most of those likely are placebos. The lights on campus and along University Ave especially are always timer-based, and the crosswalk signals always come on regardless of waiting pedestrians.
I read this and just went to try out the elevator button. You’re right! There is no difference between pressing the “close” button or not, but the “open” button is working :-D
Though i couldn’t find a fake termostate
I have to say, that where I live, there are traffic lights that only turn red when there is someone pushing the button, but that happens quite seldom. Very amusing – i will probably never push any traffic light buttons again in cities and be amused about those who don’t know and keep pushing…
To push or not push is the question? If the cost of the risk of not pushing is greater than the cost of pushing then you should ALWAYS choose to push the button.
From what I’ve seen of cross walks around the world, there are three possibilities;
1. the button does nothing,
2. the button shortens the time till the walk sign appears,
3. the walk sign appears only if the button is pushed.
The “cost” of pushing the button in all cases is the same; reaching out your hand and exerting a minimal amount of force.
Now if the button does nothing (assuming that you don’t know this) then the there is no ‘cost’ of not pushing and you have therefore cost yourself the extreme exertion of pushing a button. The light will change in due time regardless of your action.
If the button shortens the time till the light changes, you now have a slight ‘cost of risk’ of a minimal amount of your wasted time waiting for the light to change. Since the light would change in due time anyway there is still minimal cost of risk.
However the equation changes in the third case. If the light will ONLY change when the button is pushed, then the cost of not pushing goes to infinity. You would forever be stuck waiting for someone else to come along and push the button. (More realistically you would figure it out and push the button anyway, but you would waste significantly more time.)
Since in all three cases the cost of pushing the button remains the same (and minimal at best) but the risk in terms of wasted time is significantly higher in the third case. Assuming that you don’t know which of these cases exist when you approach a crosswalk, the only logical solution would be to always push the button.
It is not entirely accurate to classify cases such the one from Greg Perake as a placebo button. In this case the button itself was NOT the placebo, the noise was. The noise was the confirmation that an action had taken place. Since the action of adjusting the thermostat (the button) resulted in an action (the noise), it is perfectly reasonable to assume that the thermostat does something. Since there is a direct attributable (testable) cause and effect, it would be impossible to for any reasonable person to assume otherwise. The fallacy here is in the assumption that the noise is in anyway related adjusting the temperature. The thermostat connected to the device to create the noise is a ruse but not itself a placebo. Because the noise confirms the action, the noise becomes the placebo not the thermostat.
Likewise an elevator button that does nothing more than light up when pressed cannot technically be called a placebo, as the button does cause an effect. In this case it is the light that is the placebo.
I fucking knew it. I live in Syracuse, NY and I press those buttons constantly. I always wondered why it usually took a while for them to work, even had discussions about it wherein people told me,basically, that they must work because they are there. Now I know the truth.
Very cool article David. As usual.
Thanks for upping the game.
Shiva
New Delhi
(shivashetty.com)
Ah this reminds me of what happened today. I wanted to cross the street (it was freezing) and I pressed the cross walk button. 10 minutes later the light never changed, gah I was so angry, so I kept on pressing the button, expecting a result. I guess I am not so smart…but even more..I think the lights where broken from the cold.
Not all buttons is rewarding. Have you tried pressing the power button of an electric chair. With a living organism in the chair. It will die right. Therefore not all buttons is rewarding, but a good article there I like the content. Hope you could visit my site.
i dont know man, that could be pretty rewarding if they killed my family or anyone i new. but thats just my take on it
hahaha fools i just jaywalk! buttons are a thing of the past. plus the light always changes even if you don’t press the button. Eventually traffic on the other side has to go. walk when traffic on your side has stopped. come on people outside the box please
You clearly learned English outside the box.
Please, please, please, shut up. I’m in High School and I realize that even though this article (which I actually read a while ago, so I should probably re-read it, but I’m pretty tired from staring at the mass of idiotic comments here) might not be the greatest piece of literature to grace this Earth, that does not mean that it’s “retarded” simply because YOU just so happen to know that one of those crosswalk buttons DOES IN FACT WORK. Congratulations, they work. That’s irrelevent–because this article just says that there exist buttons that do NOT work. Also: I don’t understand how in the world people continue to post stuff like, say, Stephen did. I’m sure he’s a class act guy, but you can’t just straight up say “This is false because I know some buttons that work.” Unless you can prove that EVERY BUTTON IN THE WORLD WORKS, please stop…
To the Author: Great post–keep on writing! Even though I’m still pretty young, I really enjoy reading stuff like this–and so do my friends, and we reference your work all the time. Thanks.
You are so wrong, the burden of proof lays at the door of the person who espouses the theory. Not the ones who can find no sense in it, see the short-comings etc.
Religion is a big set of placebo buttons.
How come there are no number 4′s on that elevator picture?
lol, good eyes….they used to believe that then number 4 was unlucky.
(okay i made that up, but it might be true)
Might be Korean?
They count floors in buildings using numbers rooted in Chinese, and the number for “four” makes the same sound as one word for “death”, so there is a bit of superstition about it, especially amongst the older generations.
Funny for an article about buttons that do not work it sure seems after reading the comments that many buttons that really do work were pushed in many of the readers of this article.
Literal buttons do not work however talking about this will bring about and push figurative buttons in the readers. Hmmm sounds like science to me. I find that a bit funny, just funny enough to leave this comment, but still, that’s funny.
Funny, because I turned my light on, clicked my mouse, pushed the keypad to write this and every single one of those actions was ‘rewarded’. Do you smell something? I think its Bullsh*t.
:)
The post is very far-fetched IMHO. I don’t know how buttons work in the United States but here in Britain they work just fine so don’t generalize. Also, the reason why Stumble Upon sent me here was to read Jon Smith’s “family’s” comments, because that is the only thing worth reading on this page. Maybe it’s you that is not so smart. Cheers.
In Korea I found that most elevators the close button actually worked, though how and how well was variable.
For instance, in some buildings (apartments, commercial, whatever) the elevator doors would stay open for quite a while unless someone pressed the button. Others were well timed so that you never needed to press the button.
There were instances of some elevators where the doors just tended to shut as soon as possible, so the close button never needed to be pressed, and in fact most of the time you had to hold the open buttons to let anyone on or off!
In newer and nicer apartments, however, the doors had sensors and were automated, no button pressing needed at all.
The buttons at intersections simply let the system know someone wants to cross, as most lights nw run on a camera indicator. If you push the button, there will be a walklight. Good job on the research…
And in all seriousness, we know that vending machines aren’t computer manned. It’s not conditioning, it’s logic. Vending machines are a business model, and paying someone to dispense the items would cut the profit margin.
Ahhh, experts…
In my area, a intersections will normally only hold green lights just long enough for one or two cars to pass through the intersection. Only once the pedestrian walk button is hit will the system change the walk signal or even allow the pedestrians adequate time to cross the intersection. But this does not mean they actually cause the lights to change any more promptly.
Good lord. People are very eager to prove each other wrong aren’t they? I will say this. I’ve lived in 7 US states in my 27 years of life and I have encountered many intersection buttons. Some I could tell worked immediately. Some I could tell I had absolutely no effect on. Same with elevator buttons. To say that something always behaves a certain way because that’s all you’ve ever seen is what lead up to the notion that the was earth flat or the universe human-centric. Good job! :D
Very true :)
As an EMT, constantly using elevators in hospitals and apartment buildings, I can tell you that many of the “close door” buttons do in fact work. When you use the same elevator ten times a day, you’ll notice the time difference between the door closing on its own, and closing because you pushed the button.
very nice!
have a minute for the best at—> http://www.paleochora.com
thank you
Placebo buttons , haha kinda funny to think about .. kinda goes with the whole mind over matter situation … you want something to work so it does , or you think it does atleast …
I’ve heard a rumor that the door close button functions in hospitals as a sort of priority designator. Allowing emergency personnel to close the doors and immediately go to their floor without being stopped by awaiting passengers on other floors. And it’s done without a key, you just hold the door close button and your desired floor simultaneously until the doors close.
I’ve never tried it because I’ve never been in an emergency, but it seems perfectly reasonable that it would work without a key.
I actually get no satisfaction from the Close Door buttons in elevators because I know they don’t work when I push them. I really can’t understand how anyone can get a psychological reward from pushing a button that doesn’t do what it claims to. I know I don’t.
In lots of growing cities, where pedestrians aren’t common, you find that lots of intersections use the crosswalk button. They absolutely will not change from red until you press the button.
It’s really awesome to compare buttons to classical conditioning, though, because it truly IS classical conditioning. It’s really similar to Pavlov’s dog experiment, where he trained a dog to salivate at the sound of a bell.
Of course, if we experience enough failed buttons for long enough, the conditioning effect will wear off.
Operant conditioning at its finest.
Crosswalk buttons work in the bicycle heavy city of Portland Oregon. At least all the ones I use on my bike route. And I can’t help but wonder if that woman with the dummy thermostat didn’t stop complaining because even when they came and worked on it for her, it didn’t make things better, so why continue to complain (my thoughts if I were in the situation). Not to mention that their condescending attitude about their client was probably picked up by her, further disinclining her from making another request. No so smart.
this is stupid. it’s obvious that the door close button doesn’t work at all most of the time, and neither do crosswalks. the only reason people press them is because sometimes they do work and you have no reason not to try to save that little bit of time. and if a thermostat doesn’t do anything, you know it.
interesting…to see how offended people can get when they feel they are told they’re being foolish when they press a button :D why are we such defensive creatures?
Yes, it’s true: the “door close” button in elevators is just there for your amusement. http://on.wsj.com/ilSu8A
WHAAAT
THE CLOSE DOOR BUTTON DOESN’T ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING?
I don’t believe this. I’ll measure the time on monday
Really interesting- thanks!
Just one thing though- not all crosswalk buttons are disabled. Some of the work quite cleverly. I live in Bristol, England and most of them do trigger. If the button hasn’t been pressed for a while, they instantly stop traffic and let you cross. Otherwise, there is a minimum time gap between crossings. Another system, in use on a box junction, has a cycle that rotates around the 4 roads, letting cars from each of the 4 roads go at a time. If someone presses the button, it waits until after a certain road has been allowed to go, and then allows pedestrians to cross. At night it’s quite clever too, it has sensors that detect cars and lets cars go straight through, so you’re rarely waiting. If there are no cars at one of the roads in the day it’ll skip that road too.
I’m such a geek… :-)
I knew about the traffic lights, but not the others. Very interesting, thanks!
Thank you
First off, It’s not a metal detector under the streets it’s a pressure sensor that determines through weight whether there’s a vehicle there or not. When you see little circle cut outs just before any street light, that’s where the sensors are. Secondly, this guys entire rant about crosswalks is bs simply because I’ve missed crosswalks in Los Angeles because I didn’t press the button thinking that this intersection was like everyother one, in that it has an automatic walk/don’t walk light. The simple fact that he’s questioning the operation of a vending machine should show anyone that he’s talking out of his ass. Basically this guy is saying, you don’t understand how the machine works so there’s no way possible it functions how it was said to unless you see it operate that way. It MUST be someone tricking you somehow simply because YOU don’t know how it works. I’m sorry but just the simple fact that he brought up the whole vending machine idea makes it hard to sit here & take any of it seriously or look at it as a legit opinion. I don’t doubt his idea, or “evidence,” about the thermostats but his explination as to how companies trick people into thinking they changed the temperature would be far more expensive than it would be to actually let them change the temperature. Honestly, you think these companies have installed motors & noise generators all just to trick people into thinking they’ve altered the thermostat, really, that makes sense to you? It would cost more to install “trick measures” than it would to actually use the a/c or heater, especially with how efficient a/c & heating units have become. Also, considering that companies in buildings that large (where a/c & heating are a concern) are turning to solar panels to power the buildings because a/c & heating is so expensive. Now I have to hit on his whole definition of conditioning. Conditioning DOES NOT work because you don’t know it’s happening. Condition is achieved through repetition & repetition alone. Conditioning will work every time regardless of whether the individual is aware of what’s going on or not. What gets me more than his rediculous ideas is the fact of, why are you bringing this to everyone’s attention? And more so, what would be the purpose of conditioning us & what exactly are they conditioning us for? Pressing buttons? Honestly, step back for a second… you really don’t interact with that many buttons on a daily basis (unless you count your computer or whatever), so why are “they” using buttons? I duno man, it all just seems like a bunch of bs some guy spat out because he doesn’t understand how things work so there must be some sort of mass conspiracy going on. Maybe I’m different than everyone else but my brain doesn’t go crazy filling in the blanks when I don’t know or fully understand something. This guy’s logic is blowing my mind though… and not in the good “you just opened my mind” way either.
First off, It’s not a metal detector under the streets it’s a pressure sensor that determines through weight whether there’s a vehicle there or not. When you see little circle cut outs just before any street light, that’s where the sensors are. Secondly, this guys entire rant about crosswalks is bs simply because I’ve missed crosswalks in Los Angeles because I didn’t press the button thinking that this intersection was like everyother one, in that it has an automatic walk/don’t walk light. The simple fact that he’s questioning the operation of a vending machine should show anyone that he’s talking out of his ass. Basically this guy is saying, you don’t understand how the machine works so there’s no way possible it functions how it was said to unless you see it operate that way. It MUST be someone tricking you somehow simply because YOU don’t know how it works. I’m sorry but just the simple fact that he brought up the whole vending machine idea makes it hard to sit here & take any of it seriously or look at it as a legit opinion. I don’t doubt his idea, or “evidence,” about the thermostats but his explination as to how companies trick people into thinking they changed the temperature would be far more expensive than it would be to actually let them change the temperature. Honestly, you think these companies have installed motors & noise generators all just to trick people into thinking they’ve altered the thermostat, really, that makes sense to you? It would cost more to install “trick measures” than it would to actually use the a/c or heater, especially with how efficient a/c & heating units have become. Also, considering that companies in buildings that large (where a/c & heating are a concern) are turning to solar panels to power the buildings because a/c & heating is so expensive. Now I have to hit on his whole definition of conditioning. Conditioning DOES NOT work because you don’t know it’s happening. Condition is achieved through repetition & repetition alone. Conditioning will work every time regardless of whether the individual is aware of what’s going on or not. What gets me more than his rediculous ideas is the fact of, why are you bringing this to everyone’s attention? And more so, what would be the purpose of conditioning us & what exactly are they conditioning us for? Pressing buttons? Honestly, step back for a second… you really don’t interact with that many buttons on a daily basis (unless you count your computer or whatever), so why are “they” using buttons? I duno man, it all just seems like a bunch of bs some guy spat out because he doesn’t understand how things work so there must be some sort of mass conspiracy going on. Maybe I’m different than everyone else but my brain doesn’t go crazy filling in the blanks when I don’t know or fully understand something. This guy’s logic is blowing my mind though… and not in the good “you just opened my mind” way either.
You all are NOT SO SMART, jump off a damn bridge already!
What a condescending article, I love how you act like somehow you know each and every person. Believe it or not, we are not all helpless lab rats in some perfectly Freudian universe. You cannot generalize how people think because each individual has a distictly unique thought process, albeit relatively.
This is the second time i’ve stumbled on this. I’ve since ( the first time ) done multiple “experiments” with at least 50 different elevators in different states around the country. Your assertion that “most” door close buttons do nothing without a key is completely false based on my findings. What I mean is if the time it takes for the door to close isn’t supposed to change to a shorter interval if you press the button according to your theory then you are completely wrong :) But I like to get information from experience rather than just stating what I just come up with in my head as a fact. Also, I would find this hard to believe since the actual majority of elevators in the us are made by a group of about 3 manufacturers ( all of which i tested ) the whole idea seems pretty silly.
is anyone here an urban traffic engineer? There are regional and national differences. It’s like the Matrix not that I’ve actually seen that movie but I have seen movies with similar themes…
PS Jon Smith – early pioneer – that was a valiant attempt to push buttons – what do the rest of you think? YES/NO
Elevator buttons work in Japan.
I tried to use the open/close buttons, and indeed they did what they were supposed to do-
open and close the elevator.
I do agree that little people work inside vending machines and that their cousins operate our refrigerators.
These reports might as well be exaggerated in for the story to sound better.
However, it’s true that people want and like to feel in control. They have discovered that inmates who are allowed to move things around their cell are happier than those who aren’t.
donuts are good. i was the guy in your moms bed last night. good shit. :p
http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/113610/things-you-think-work-but-actually-dont-mainst
This article bears a striking resemblance to this one. Oh well.
I have seen plenty of intersections that will not change if you do not push the button, but yes I get your point. Why not go planking?
And I care why? Fuck it, there are more important issues in life than whether a few buttons work or not
This is stupid I personally know how to wire a door bell. We press buttons not just to get rewarded, but because we expect the result. Plus there are the soda machines that show the process of getting the drink.
I can attest that here in Scotland, all crossing buttons seem to work, as do all “close door” buttons so far. Furthermore, some pedestrian crossings have sensors such that the button must be pushed AND the person (or some other stimuli) must be there before the man goes green.
Although, the place is full of zombies who repeatedly press the button of the floor they are after instead.
Stupid ameicans. You are not so smart stupid ameicans. I am smart you stupid.
i push the button because sometimes the food pellet comes out.
The crossing buttons in New York might be faked, but New York, and London among other megacities, are different from most towns.
There’s no point in a crossing displaying “WALK” or the Green Man symbol, if nobody wants to cross. It would, cumulatively, cause millions of hours of wasted driving time. For every crossing I’ve ever paid attention to, the button tells the computer that somebody wishes to cross, and the computer then waits for the right conditions on the traffic lights it controls, and turns them red when appropriate. Typically a few seconds, I suppose they’re programmed to “think” in repeating cycles that last maybe 30 seconds.
In New York, it’s likely many crossings are ALWAYS in use, or often enough at least, to be worth using placebo buttons. So in that case transport designers (there are people who’s job is to study traffic flow, and optimise signals accordingly) would put in the timings that give the best throughput, with the buttons mostly not needed.
In London and Manchester town centres, I’m pleased to say, an ad-hoc system has sprung up that works in reverse. When enough people want to cross, WE CROSS NOW! And traffic just has to cope.
I’m dead now. I killed myself after I got pwned.
Your site is pretty cool to me and your topics are very relevant. I was browsing around and came across something you might find interesting. I was guilty of 3 of them with my sites. “99% of blog managers are doing these 5 errors”. http://bit.ly/sNpfy8 You will be suprised how easy they are to fix.
My uncle works in construction and told me that the buttons DO work and are not psychological. Each button just have a different timer setting on it from when you push the button for the door to close.
The only reason for them to not work is if they are broken or turned off.
The article actually is a benefit to me because, contrary to this statement:
‘The problem here is that some buttons in modern life don’t actually do anything at all. The magic between the button press and the result you want is all in your head. You never catch on – because you are not so smart.’
I caught on long ago BUT I thought they were broken or didn’t work well because they were designed poorly. That has caused me much frustration in the past!
I also think about that poor lady in the office thinking that she is crazy or having hotflashes or whatever because the ‘fake’ thermostat is lying to her!
No where is safe from the lying evil-doers!