The Placebo Effect Not Just On Drugs

dvdme writes "It seems the placebo effect isn't just valid on drugs. It's also a fact on elevators, offices and traffic lights. An article by Greg Ross says: 'In most elevators installed since the early 1990s, the 'close door' button has no effect. Otis Elevator engineers confirmed the fact to the Wall Street Journal in 2003. Similarly, many office thermostats are dummies, designed to give workers the illusion of control. "You just get tired of dealing with them and you screw in a cheap thermostat," said Illinois HVAC specialist Richard Dawson. "Guess what? They quit calling you." In 2004 the New York Times reported that more than 2,500 of the 3,250 "walk" buttons in New York intersections do nothing. "The city deactivated most of the pedestrian buttons long ago with the emergence of computer-controlled traffic signals, even as an unwitting public continued to push on."'"

Comments

This explains the political process

[Cornwallis]

I keep voting and nothing new happens.

Re:This explains the political process

[alen]

what do you expect to happen? i've lived in the US almost 30 years and everyone wants a government check and free health care but they don't want to pay for it.

after 30 years i like the US, A LOT

Re:This explains the political process

[ChefInnocent]

Oh for a mod point. I've come to look at the election process as voting for Coke or Pepsi when all I want is a glass of water. Transparent and no artificial additives.

Re:This explains the political process

[Anonymous Coward]

I keep voting and nothing new happens.

Funny coincidence... my father calls the "walk" buttons at traffic lights, "politician buttons". I never understood the answer, and thus the joke, as a child... went something like this:

Dad: "why do you always press the politician button?"
Me: "why do you always call it a politician button?"
Dad: "because it does nothing."

Re:This explains the political process

[H0p313ss]

I keep voting and nothing new happens.

You joke, but during the Suharto regime in Indonesia (1967 - 1998) they held elections and a large part of the population thought they lived in a democracy as a result. They had a very large, and politically diverse, number of parties and they allowed them all to have rallies etc.

Come election day, nothing ever changed and the people were more content than they would have been without the illusion of political contention, it was very educational to watch.

Re:This explains the political process

[Smidge204]

More specifically, people want free health care but don't want "them" to have it, because "they" are moochers or lazy and are just taking advantage of the system. "If I get free handouts from the government, that's okay because I'm just getting my tax money back. God forbid someone else gets assistance, because that's my money, dammit!"

I know several people who have stated this point of view explicitly. The cognitive dissonance is tear-my-hair-out infuriating.
=Smidge=

Re:This explains the political process

[Schadrach]

I've known someone who was ranting about those "damn liberals and their socialist programs, trying to push socialist health care on us now" *while* filling out forms to apply for Medicare.

Re:This explains the political process

[bberens]

I'll add another to your list. I'm a very small government conservative (against Department of Education, against even a large standing army, etc.). But I support socialized healthcare. Why? Because it's the only feasible pathway away from employer controlled healthcare. We've already killed the biggest noose employers put around their employees (pensions), the last big thing is health care. Once you strip that away from the employer you will see TONS of people starting up that small business they've always wanted to. Nothing will be better for capitalism in America than socializing healthcare. Mark my words. It's coming, and it'll be great when it happens.

How is this news?

[Eudial]

My computer isn't responding when I click an icon. I click again. Nothing. So I click it really hard 30 times in a row. Now the computer decides to respond. Clearly, the computer can read my frustration, and therefore hurries to open the 32 firefox windows I requested.

close button in elevators...

[codegen]

Well yes and no. It is true that most of them have no effect in normal operation, but when the elevator is in service mode (i.e. apartment move mode), then doors stay open until you press the close button.

In my sister's apartment, the close button has a effect. The normal door open time is about 40 seconds, and it will close the instant you press the close button (i.e. after 5 seconds). In the office building that I'm in (mid 60s construction), the close button has no effect unless the elevator is in service mode).

not placebo

[LiquidCoooled]

ok, so I arrive in a town at an intersection with a button.
I am going to press it because how the heck do I know whether its connected or not?

Re:not placebo

[Tsiangkun]

I'm the jogger. If you would have looked, made eye contact, and given me the right away to cross, I would not have to hit that button. I KNOW it causes you a longer wait. As soon as you learn that it is faster to yield to the pedestrian than to wait for a whole light cycle, the situation will change. As it is, you show no sign of yielding, so I hit the button.

Not sure "placebo effect" is accurate

[gosand]

"Placebo effect" implies a perceived improvement. I think it's obvious by the number of times people push elevator close door or street "walk" buttons, or fiddle with office thermostats, there is no perceived improvement.

bullshit

[eyenot]

"most elevators installed since the early 1990's, the close door button has no effect"

and yet i frequently use the close door button to real effect in nearly every elevator i have been in in the last fifteen years including ones installed since 2000.

meanwhile, some news claims aren't factual but people believe they are because they are made by news agencies.

I created a WOW priest named "Placebo"

[aapold]

After reaching the level cap, I'd join pug groups and in the role of "healer". I had gear with special effects that did nothing and created all manner of macros to create these effects while at the same time emoting that I was healing my target.

After the wipe, when they'd call me on it (I have yet to find an addon that will monkey with other people's trackers) I'd try to explain that I was doing this strictly for research and they were in the placebo group.

Somehow, this did not seem to appease them.