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.
Simpler reason: To avoid awkward stares at others, in a confined space?
I wonder if this was before, or after, she went through the building ringing doorbells and running? No doubt she voted for Obama.
Generally, I’ll either stare directly at the eyes of the other person or share an embarrassing personal story.
why does the link go to a smiley gif?
...
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/ftf-mastripieri/
why does the link go to a smiley gif?
...
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/ftf-mastripieri/
Interesting article. As someone who has worked in tall buildings for some years, I strongly disagree with the notion that people act out of "fear" when they are in close proximity to others like this.
I think the single biggest reason why people act disinterested and detached in an elevator is that we don't like being in close proximity to others unless it is on "our own terms." In other words, we act the same way in an elevator that we do while walking down a corridor in a shopping mall. We ignore the people around us and pretend they don't exist because we simply don't know them . . . and their presence has nothing to do with what we're shopping for.
For some evidence of this, just get on an elevator in a building where one tenant occupies the entire building. People will usually act much different in this kind of situation. Even if they get on an elevator with someone they don't know, they're far more likely to engage them in random conversation during the elevator ride -- because they know up front that they have something in common.
sorry, dbl posted.
Maybe people want to see where they have been. Maybe this is the only time that some of us will ever rise above our current position. Maybe we are all just so dang insecure.
The link is fine.
Has your computer’s security been compromised?
Or we are just preoccupied somewhat with our own matters, and don’t really want to talk to strangers or stare at them.
There’s not much places to stare at in the first place..
pile of assumptive psychobabble bull.
A does X
B does X
B doing X doesn’t necesarily come as a result of A doing X, it’s because both desire the same result that occurs after doing X.
maybe. strange its only for this thread.
and hovering over the link provided by the OP does state the link is a gif.
my link works of course.
>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.
The best part of the article... and, coincidentally, the most verifiable.
...and hope that you have a bad case of gas, right?
PS — Be sure to lean on the “close door” button.
:)
The link is fine. Has your computer’s security been compromised?
The link does go to an image of two tiny smiley faces.
"Everybody's been real nice."
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