Placebo Buttons .
Andre Willers
9 Mar 2014
Synopsis :
A deliberate illusion of control that makes you feel better
. What are your placebo buttons ?
Discussion :
1.Human placebo buttons : see Annexure A
1.1 “I love you” .
1.2 “I didn’t mean that”
.
1.3 “I just said …”
1.4 “This time is different”
1.5 “This is best for you .”
1.6 “ This is God’s will”
1.7 “ This Investment Lift only stops at the top floor”
1.8 “ This diet really works “
1.9 “You can do
anything”
1.10 “ Virginity guaranteed . Or your money back “
Etc , etc ,etc .
2. Diplomacy :
An essential requirement for any Politian or diplomat . The
illusion of control , but the button is not connected to anything .
3.The Placebo School of Democracy .
The vote is not connected to anything .
4.Triage .
Placebos are useful for level 1 (minor injuries) and level
3 (terminal injuries)
A fake pill or fake button has pronounced effects . Especially if long
waiting periods are involved .
A little crank handle would while the time away , if the
patient believed some benefit would
accrue .
5. “If they wait , they agitate “
The secret of hassle-free queue’s is to keep them busy.
The same with your tiny little mind .
6. Mantra’s
Placebo buttons .
See Appendix A
7. While trying to cross Metaphysical Junction , you got run
over by a bus full of acolytes . You thought the button allowing pedestrians to
cross safely actually worked . But it was a placebo button . Next time , look .
8. Click on Star for relief of anxiety .
And so we go
Regards
Andre
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Annexure A
Ever
stood at an intersection and prodded at, leaned on, elbowed and otherwise
palm-slapped the ever-living hell out of a crosswalk button and wondered to
yourself if the thing actually does anything at all, really? Well – chances
are, it doesn't.
Photo by Adam Ragusea via a WBUR piece on
placebo crosswalk buttons
In a
piece that will make you question every publicly accessible switch, toggle and
button you encounter from this day forth, the folks at You Are Not So
Smart reveal the truth about so-called "placebo
buttons," the triggers we've been conditioned since birth to associate
with instantaneous gratification that actually do nothing. Crosswalk buttons.
Thermostats. The close-door buttons in elevators. Why do placebo buttons exist?
Because they are remarkably effective psychologically. And they are everywhere.
"Placebo
buttons are a lot like superstitions, or ancient rituals," the article
reads. "You do something in the hopes of an outcome – if you get the
outcome, you keep the superstition."
The Not
So Smart article – which is a few years old at this point, but has
been making the rounds lately – really resonates with a piece by Alex Stone,
published last year in The New York Times, about the psychology of
lines and the weird ways that humans not only experience waiting, but quantify
the value of their time. It opens with the following anecdote:
SOME years ago,
executives at a Houston airport faced a troubling customer-relations issue.
Passengers were lodging an inordinate number of complaints about the long waits
at baggage claim. In response, the executives increased the number of baggage
handlers working that shift. The plan worked: the average wait fell to eight
minutes, well within industry benchmarks. But the complaints persisted.
Puzzled, the airport
executives undertook a more careful, on-site analysis. They found that it took
passengers a minute to walk from their arrival gates to baggage claim and seven
more minutes to get their bags. Roughly 88 percent of their time, in other
words, was spent standing around waiting for their bags.
So the
airport decided on a new approach: instead of reducing wait times, it moved the
arrival gates away from the main terminal and routed bags to the outermost
carousel. Passengers now had to walk six times longer to get their bags.
Complaints dropped to near zero.
What it
boils down to, Stone says, is a difference between occupied time and unoccupied
time. Ten minutes of the former is experienced as shorter than ten minutes of
the latter.
More on
the psychology of placebo buttons and waiting at You Are Not So
Smart and The New York Times.
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