Most people do not have the patience to wait a few seconds for the elevator doors to shut, so they push the ‘close’ button to speed up the process.
Most people don’t have the patience to wait for the elevator to close automatically (although the process is only a few seconds), so they press the "close the door" button to speed up the closing.
However, some say this feature has been obsolete since the 1990s, suggesting the button is a complete fake it will not close the doors any faster.
However, many people say that the elevator door closing button has been eliminated since the 1990s, which shows that the current door closing buttons are totally furnishings, and they will not speed up the door closing at all.
Experts reveal that there numerous buttons in the world that do not live up to their name, but are present to make us feel in control.
Experts say that although there are many unworthy buttons in the world, their existence gives us a sense of control.
The Americans With Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, mandating that elevators stay open long enough for someone with a physical disability, such as on crutches or in a wheelchair, to make it inside, Karen W. Penafiel, executive director of National Elevator Industry Inc., told Christopher Mele with The New York Timesin an interview.
The Americans with Disabilities Act, which was passed in 1990, requires that elevators should be kept open long enough to take care of physically disabled people, such as people with crutches or wheelchairs, and facilitate their access to elevators. Karen W. Pe? a Fiel, CEO of National Elevator Industry Co., Ltd., said this in an interview with Christopher Mill in The New York Times:
"Although these buttons are useless to the average person, they do perform their proper function for firefighters and maintenance workers but only with a code or designated keys."
"Although these buttons have no effect on ordinary people, they can play a good role for firefighters or maintenance personnel who use passwords or specific keys."
Penafiel explains since an elevator’s lifespan is around 25 years, it is safe to say that a majority, if any, do not have a functioning ‘close’ button but the ‘open’ button works when it is pushed.
Pe? a Fiel explained that since the service life of an elevator is about 25 years, we can safely assume that even though the "close" button of most elevators is not effective, the "open" button is effective.
As bizarre as it seems to place fake buttons in an elevator or other devices, they are there for good reasons.
Although it seems strange to put a fake button in an elevator or other equipment, these fake buttons have certain reasons.
’Perceived control is very important,’ Ellen J. Langer, a psychology professor at Harvard University who has studied the illusion of control, told Mele in an email.
"It is very important to have a sense of control," Allen J. Langer, a psychology professor at Harvard University who has studied the illusion of control, wrote in an email to Mill:
’It diminishes stress and promotes well-being.’
"This feeling can reduce people’s stress and increase their happiness."
Another expert, John Kounios, a psychology professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said that these buttons are there to add an illusion of control if they weren’t, people would feel a lack of control which is linked to depression.
John Kunios, another psychology professor from Drexel University in Philadelphia, said that these buttons exist to give people an illusion of control. Without these buttons, people will feel lack of control, which will lead to depression.
And those people who know the little white lie will still continue to push these decoy buttons because the doors eventually close and that is the desired reward, he said.
He said that for those who know that these buttons have no effect, but are just a well-intentioned scam, they will continue to press these buttons, because the door will eventually close, and this is what they want.
"Fake buttons" on crosswalks
However, elevators aren’t the only deceitful devices – crosswalk signals in New York City are also on the list.
However, it’s not just the elevator-the crossing key sign of new york crosswalk also deceived us.
The New York Timesrevealed in 2004 that the Big Apple pulled the plug on a majority of its pedestrian buttons long ago, as a result of computer-controlled traffic signals.
In 2004, The New York Times reported that traffic lights are now controlled by computers, so new york has already unplugged the key power supply for most crosswalks.
City figures state that out of the 3,250 crosswalk buttons, 2,500 of them were replaced with mechanical placebos, or non-functioning mechanisms.
According to the data of New York State, 2,500 of the 3,250 crosswalk buttons were replaced by invalid buttons.
The reason the buttons are still in place is because it costs about $1 million to remove them.
These invalid buttons are still there because it costs about $1 million to remove them.
But New York City isn’t alone in this let down, as ABC conducted a survey in 2010 that found only one working crosswalk button in Austin Texas, Gainesville, Florida and Syracuse, New York.
But new york is not the only city with a large number of invalid crosswalk buttons. According to a survey conducted by ABC in 2010, crosswalks in Austin, Texas, Gainesville, Florida and Syracuse, new york all have only one useful button.
Invalid office thermostat?
Depending on where you work, you may not want to trust the thermostat that everyone has access to.
Depending on the workplace, you may not want to trust the thermostat that everyone can control.
In 2003, the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration News found that many offices install ‘dummy thermostats’ 51 out of 71 people in the survey confirmed their office in fact has one.
In 2003, Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration News found that the thermostats installed in many offices were "unresponsive". Of the 71 people who took part in the survey, 51 admitted that there was such a useless regulator in their office.
One respondent David Trimble of Fort Collins, Colorado, wrote The Newsthat individuals ‘felt better’ that they have the ability to control the temperature in the office following the installation of a decoy thermostat.
David trimble, a journalist in fort collins, Colorado, wrote in The News that people will be "happy" because they feel able to control the office temperature after installing an ineffective thermostat in the office.
’This cut down the number of service calls by over 75 percent,’ he wrote.
He wrote: "This reduced the number of maintenance requests by 75%."
English source: Daily Mail
Translation: Lv Jingjing
Editor: yaning