WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Do Crosswalk and "Close Door" Buttons Really Do Anything?

0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:07.040
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,

0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:09.959
<v Speaker 1>I'm Lauren vocal Bam and I've got another classic episode

0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:14.120
<v Speaker 1>for you today. Our question, do crosswalk and close door

0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:18.600
<v Speaker 1>buttons on elevators really do anything? Former host Christian Sager

0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:26.160
<v Speaker 1>explains plus sebo buttons, Hey, brain Stuff, this is Christian Sagar.

0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:31.200
<v Speaker 1>Pushing buttons is super satisfying. A button represents a modicum

0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:35.159
<v Speaker 1>of control in our chaotic world. In the moment of pushing,

0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:39.000
<v Speaker 1>you are the brief master of your own fate. All

0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:43.040
<v Speaker 1>the forces humankind have harnessed have come to bow under

0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:48.400
<v Speaker 1>your fingertip. But does pressing buttons always have the promised effect?

0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.920
<v Speaker 1>Do close door buttons and elevators and pushed to cross

0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:56.640
<v Speaker 1>buttons at crosswalks actually do anything? Well? Physically speaking, the

0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:01.720
<v Speaker 1>answer is not always Psychologically the jury is out, so

0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:04.959
<v Speaker 1>let's tackle the physical section first. As of two thousand four,

0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:08.440
<v Speaker 1>a representative from the Department of Transportation in New York

0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.360
<v Speaker 1>City said that more than seventy of their crosswalk buttons

0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:17.160
<v Speaker 1>had no effect on their traffic signals, and as in

0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:22.120
<v Speaker 1>the UK, transportation officials reported that an unknown number of

0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:27.600
<v Speaker 1>crosswalk signals function automatically regardless of whether anyone presses the button.

0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:31.480
<v Speaker 1>The estimates that they could give regarding non functional buttons

0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:37.959
<v Speaker 1>ranged from eight percent to but why many crosswalk buttons

0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.360
<v Speaker 1>are relics of a time before signal patterns were controlled

0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:45.520
<v Speaker 1>by computer systems to help streamline traffic. Removing the buttons,

0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.560
<v Speaker 1>especially in large cities like New York, could cost millions,

0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:53.160
<v Speaker 1>so the folks in charge have generally chosen to leave

0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:56.760
<v Speaker 1>them standing. In newer traffic control systems, for example, the

0:01:56.840 --> 0:02:00.920
<v Speaker 1>split cycle offset optimization technique, some people just like to

0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:04.960
<v Speaker 1>call it scoot well. For example, municipalities can program buttons

0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.440
<v Speaker 1>to turn on only some of the time. Now, think

0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:11.280
<v Speaker 1>of an intersection with lots of motor traffic twenty four

0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:15.240
<v Speaker 1>hours a day, but pedestrian traffic mostly during business hours

0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:18.680
<v Speaker 1>during the day, when walk signals will likely be useful.

0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:23.040
<v Speaker 1>During every signal cycle, the buttons don't work. The walk

0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:27.680
<v Speaker 1>signal comes automatically at night, when fewer people are on foot,

0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:30.920
<v Speaker 1>you have to press the button to stop traffic and

0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:35.880
<v Speaker 1>cross the street. Meanwhile, reports on the functionality of elevator

0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.680
<v Speaker 1>closed door buttons vary by the source. The urban myth

0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:42.760
<v Speaker 1>that they're usually fake or that they're only operable with

0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:45.800
<v Speaker 1>the use of a key by emergency or repair personnel.

0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.720
<v Speaker 1>Seems to stem from the Americans with Disabilities Act of

0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:56.760
<v Speaker 1>it's current accessibility guidelines specified that elevator doors must remain

0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:01.720
<v Speaker 1>open for at least three seconds. In practice, this law

0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:06.440
<v Speaker 1>may well render closed door buttons useless to the particularly

0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.960
<v Speaker 1>impatient of us. But there's no reason to think that

0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:14.240
<v Speaker 1>they're all, or even mostly, placebo buttons. Yet. You heard

0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:19.000
<v Speaker 1>me write placebo buttons. This is the psychology term for

0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:22.639
<v Speaker 1>buttons that are designed to not do anything. They're named

0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.480
<v Speaker 1>after the placebo effect. In brief, the placebo effect is

0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:31.840
<v Speaker 1>a confirmed phenomenon in which people experience measurable clinical results

0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:35.560
<v Speaker 1>with fake treatments due to the apparent power of their

0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.800
<v Speaker 1>belief in the treatment. In the world of buttons, placebos

0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.800
<v Speaker 1>have been installed on purpose in some workplaces in the

0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:46.480
<v Speaker 1>form of fake thermostats. According to an informal survey conducted

0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:51.360
<v Speaker 1>by the online publication Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration News

0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:56.040
<v Speaker 1>that Sounds Extremely Interesting, a majority of h VAC professionals

0:03:56.040 --> 0:04:01.160
<v Speaker 1>have installed placebo thermostats during their careers, or fifty one

0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:05.080
<v Speaker 1>out of seventy respondents at any rate. It seems that

0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:09.360
<v Speaker 1>managers sometimes hope that employees who would otherwise waste time

0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:13.240
<v Speaker 1>complaining about the temperature will be placated by pressing a button,

0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:17.240
<v Speaker 1>even if it doesn't change anything. After all, even the

0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:23.000
<v Speaker 1>illusion of control can make us happier. Today's episode was

0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:25.240
<v Speaker 1>produced by Tyler Clang and written by Me in the

0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.160
<v Speaker 1>way Back for Brainstuff's YouTube series. If you like our

0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.040
<v Speaker 1>show and also like t shirts, check out our merch

0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:34.520
<v Speaker 1>store at t public dot com slash brain stuff. For

0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:37.200
<v Speaker 1>more on this and lots of other topics that probably

0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:40.359
<v Speaker 1>aren't playing a psychological trick on you. Visit our home planet,

0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:53.000
<v Speaker 1>how stuff works dot com.