Posted on 05/29/2009 7:47:10 AM PDT by yankeedame
In horror movies, more people are probably murdered in elevators than in any other closed space, including the shower. In real life, the probability of being the victim of a deadly attack in an elevator is virtually zero. Yet, the way people act towards others when they ride together in an elevator suggests that they have serious concerns about their own safety.
If the elevator is crowded, everybody stands still and stares at the ceiling, the floor or the button panel as if they’ve never seen it before. If two strangers ride together in the elevator, they stand as far as possible from each other, don’t face each other directly, don’t make eye contact and don’t make any sudden movements or noises.
Much of people’s behavior in elevators is not the result of rational thinking. It’s an automatic, instinctive response to the situation. The threat of aggression is not real, yet our mind responds as if it is, and produces behaviors meant to protect ourselves.
Elevators are relatively recent inventions, but the social challenges they pose are nothing new. Close proximity to other people in restricted spaces is a situation that has occurred millions of times in the history of humankind.
Imagine two Paleolithic cavemen who follow the tracks of a large bear into the same small, dark cave. There is no bear in there, only the other hungry caveman ominously waving his club: clearly an awkward situation that requires an exit strategy. In those Paleolithic days, murder was an acceptable way to get out of socially awkward situations, much in the way we use an early morning doctor’s appointment as an excuse to leave a dinner party early. In the cave, one of the cavemen whacks the other over the head with his club and the party is over.
Similarly, when male chimpanzees in Uganda encounter a male from another group, they slash his throat and rip his testicles off — just in case he survives and has any future ambitions for reproduction.
Our minds evolved from the minds of the cavemen, and their minds, in turn, evolved from the minds of their primate ancestors — apes that looked a lot like chimpanzees. Some of our mental abilities appeared very recently in our evolutionary history — like our ability for abstract reasoning, language, love or spirituality. But the way primate minds respond to potentially dangerous social situations hasn’t changed in millions of years.
Evolution has been so conservative in this domain that the minds of humans, chimpanzees and even macaque monkeys — whose ancestors began diverging from ours 25 million years ago — still show traces of the original blueprint.
When two rhesus macaques are trapped together in a small cage, they try everything they can to avoid fighting. Moving with caution, acting indifferent and suppressing all the behaviors that could trigger aggression are good short-term solutions to the problem. The monkeys sit in a corner and avoid any random movements that might inadvertently cause a collision, because even a brief touch could be interpreted as the beginning of hostile action. Mutual eye contact must also be avoided because, in monkey language, staring is a threat.
The monkeys look up in the air, or at the ground, or stare at some imaginary point outside the cage. But as time passes, sitting still and feigning indifference are no longer sufficient to keep the situation under control. Tension between the prisoners builds, and sooner or later one of them will lose her temper.
To avoid immediate aggression, and also to reduce stress, an act of communication is needed to break the ice and make it clear to the other monkey that no harm is intended or expected. Macaque monkeys bare their teeth to communicate fear and friendly intentions. If this “bared-teeth display” — the evolutionary precursor of the human smile — is well received, it can be a prelude to grooming. One monkey brushes and cleans the other’s fur, gently massaging the skin and picking and eating parasites. Grooming can both relax and appease another monkey, virtually eliminating the chance of an attack. (You wouldn’t bite your masseuse, would you?)
So, if you are a rhesus macaque and find yourself trapped in a small cage with another macaque, you know what to do: Bare your teeth and start grooming. If you are a human and find yourself riding in an elevator with a stranger, I recommend you do the same: Smile and make polite conversation.
One morning when I was living on the 20th floor of a high-rise building I rode the elevator with a middle-aged man who seemed to be particularly intimidated by my presence. As I stepped in, he smiled nervously and started talking immediately. He talked nonstop and managed to give me his entire medical history, complete with symptoms, diagnoses and treatments, before we reached the ground floor. I doubt that this man expected to receive medical advice from me. Rather, he was clearly an insecure and emotionally vulnerable person who used massive verbal grooming to appease a perceived potential aggressor in a risky situation.
Not all my experiences are like this, of course. When I ride in an elevator with an attractive woman, I’m generally treated with indifference, which in this case is not a sign of fear or intimidation. When my girlfriend rides in an elevator with a man, the man often strikes up a conversation with her and ends up asking for her phone number. People’s responses to potential mating opportunities are just as predictable as their responses to potentially dangerous situations.
The beauty of human nature, however, is that although the average behavior of human beings can be scientifically predicted, there is a lot of unpredictable variation above and below the mean. Once, on the way up to my apartment, I met an old lady who got in the elevator on the second floor, pressed all the buttons from the third through the 22nd floor, and got out on the third floor with a grin on her face.
Ah, but if you are situationally aware you DON'T do this.
You PAY attention to the people around you.Being situationally aware has kept me out of some tight spots.
I learned the technique, and it is a learned behaviour, from a Cheif Petty Officer in the US Navy while I was stationed in South East Asia.
The link source also reads “wired science”, as opposed to “weird science” as in the title of the thread.
Get on the elevator. Say hello everyone, my name is......
Then anounce that you were just diagnosed as an undifferentiated schizophrenic and you’ve lost your meds.
The other riders will leave you alone.
Here’s the correct link...
Op-Ed: Why the Elevator Floor Is So Interesting | Wired Science | Wired.com:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/ftf-mastripieri/
“If there are two people in an elevator, and one of them farts - everybody knows who did it!” - George Carlin
I guess I’m an anomaly: I never look at the elevator floor.
Fun with elevators I have done.
When entering a crowded elevator instead of turning around to look at the door, stand with back against door and look at crowd.
Stand in back corner, moan, bang head against the wall saying “must stop the music”. Crowded elevator gets empty fast.
Get on elevator and stand and stare at the back wall like it’s a door. The less people on the elevator the more chance of the other person also staring at the back wall. Works even better if other people are in on it and back wallers outnumber front doorers.
When on a long trip going up jump when the elevator stops at the top. When going down lift arms in the air like on a roller coaster. Shout WHHEEEEEE! in both directions.
Sniff the air and step away from everyone else. Even if there is no offending scents. People will tend to make up an offending scent even if one doesn’t exist.
And a real salesman will make the other person believe he did it.
>> We ignore the people around us and pretend they don’t exist ...
>> Ah, but if you are situationally aware you DON’T do this.
Good post. I can’t believe the number of young (mostly female) dingbats walking around texting or with Ipods in their ears in places where I’m nervous. For a good read on this subject, start by Googling up: “Color codes of mental awareness”.
The fact is, if there’s a mirrored ceiling, it’s sometimes possible to look down into some cleavage. Or check my own bald spot.
The best time to do that is when you are in a lobby waiting for an elevator and find that the cab is already full.
I tend to cough loudly then say “I probably should go back to the TB clinic soon.”
I prefer to let my flatulence do the talking.
Because nobody wants to take credit for that weapons-grade flatulence attack.
Yes, my Navy Cheif didn’t put it in quite those terms but it was essentially the same message.
Not so. I tried that once and she got really upset.
If I’m on an elevator with men, I try to insult the local sports team as loudly as I can. If my company on the vertical bus is female, I grope them. If mixed company, I grope the women and blame it on one of the other men.
I’ll bet this guy’s eggs try to jump off the plate every morning.
“One morning when I was living on the 20th floor of a high-rise building I rode the elevator with a middle-aged man who seemed to be particularly intimidated by my presence.
As I stepped in, he smiled nervously and started talking immediately. He talked nonstop and managed to give me his entire medical history, complete with symptoms, diagnoses and treatments, before we reached the ground floor. I doubt that this man expected to receive medical advice from me. Rather, he was clearly an insecure and emotionally vulnerable person who used massive verbal grooming to appease a perceived potential aggressor in a risky situation.”
The female Homo Sapien is also known to do this to the male of the species, often times at the onset of a divorce but also within the marriage itself, albeit in a symbolic way.
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