Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff. From how stuff works a brain stuff.
Speaker 1: This is Christian Seger. Pushing buttons is super satisfying. A
Speaker 1: button represents a modicum of control in our chaotic world.
Speaker 1: In the moment of pushing, you are the brief master
Speaker 1: of your own fate. All the forces humankind have harnessed
Speaker 1: have come to bow under your fingertip. But does pressing
Speaker 1: buttons always have the promised effect? Do close door buttons
Speaker 1: and elevators and pushed to cross buttons at crosswalks actually
Speaker 1: do anything well? Physically speaking, the answer is not always
Speaker 1: Psychologically the jury is out, so let's tackle the physical
Speaker 1: section first. As of two thousand four, a representative from
Speaker 1: the Department of Transportation in New York City said that
Speaker 1: more than seventy of their crosswalk buttons had no effect
Speaker 1: on their traffic signals, and as of in the UK,
Speaker 1: transportation officials reported that an unknown number of crosswalk signals
Speaker 1: function automatically regardless of whether anyone presses the button. The
Speaker 1: estimates that they could give regarding non functional buttons ranged
Speaker 1: from eight percent to but why many crosswalk buttons are
Speaker 1: relics of a time before signal patterns were controlled by
Speaker 1: computer systems to help streamline traffic. Removing the buttons, especially
Speaker 1: in large cities like New York, could cost millions, so
Speaker 1: the folks in charge have generally chosen to leave them standing.
Speaker 1: In newer traffic control systems, for example, the split cycle
Speaker 1: offset optimization technique could some people just like to call
Speaker 1: it scoot well. For example, municipalities can program buttons to
Speaker 1: turn on only some of the time. Now, think of
Speaker 1: an intersection with lots of motor traffic twenty four hours
Speaker 1: a day, but pedestrian traffic mostly during business hours during
Speaker 1: the day when walk signals will likely be useful. During
Speaker 1: every signal cycle, the buttons don't work. The walk signal
Speaker 1: comes automatically at night, when fewer people are on foot,
Speaker 1: you have to press the button to stop traffic and
Speaker 1: cross the street. Meanwhile, reports on the functionality of elevator
Speaker 1: closed door buttons vary by the source. The urban myth
Speaker 1: that they're usually fake or that they're only operable with
Speaker 1: the use of a key by emergency or repair personnel
Speaker 1: seems to stem from the Americans with Disabilities Act. Of
Speaker 1: it's current accessibility guidelines specified that elevator doors must remain
Speaker 1: open for at least three seconds. In practice, this law
Speaker 1: may well render closed door buttons useless to the particularly
Speaker 1: impatient of us. But there's no reason to think that
Speaker 1: they're all, or even mostly, placebo buttons. Yet you heard
Speaker 1: me right. Placebo buttons. This is the psychology term for
Speaker 1: buttons that are designed to not do anything. They're named
Speaker 1: after the placebo effect. In brief, the placebo effect is
Speaker 1: a confirmed phenomenon in which people experience measurable clinical results
Speaker 1: with fake treatments due to the apparent power of their
Speaker 1: belief in the treatment. In the world of buttons, placebos
Speaker 1: have been installed on purpose in some workplaces in the
Speaker 1: form of fake thermostats. According to an informal survey conducted
Speaker 1: by the online publication Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration News
Speaker 1: that Sounds Extremely Interesting, a majority of h VAC professionals
Speaker 1: have installed placebo thermostats during their careers, or fifty one
Speaker 1: out of seventy respondents at any rate. It seems that
Speaker 1: managers sometimes hope that employees who would otherwise waste time
Speaker 1: complaining about the temperature will be placated by pressing a button,
Speaker 1: even if it doesn't change anything. After all, even the
Speaker 1: illusion of control can make us happier. Check out the
Speaker 1: brainstuff channel on YouTube, and for more on this and
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.