I wonder if this is apocryphal

[andrewducker]

There was once a skyscraper, decades ago, where people complained that the elevator was too slow. The workers complained to the managers, and the managers complained to the building's owners. The complaints grew in intensity. Finally, the landlord of the building knew they must act.

So they called in a research team to figure out what to do. And the research team measured everything - how many stops the elevators had to make, what speeds could be safely managed, the algorithm by which a press of a button sent an elevator to a particular floor. They also looked at sociological factors, such as what people did while they waited for the elevator to arrive.

After all this study, the research team made a recommendation - put in mirrors by the elevators. And the building's owner did. And all complaints about the slow speed of the elevator vanished. Because now people had something to do while they waited - they could look at themselves.

And this research had such an impact that it spread, so that nowadays most skyscrapers have mirrors near their elevators. The novelty has never worn off, even though, at this point, an entire generation of office workers have grown up with mirrors next to the elevators.

From

Comments

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

http://www3.sympatico.ca/karasik/GF_evolution_of_legend.html

I heard that they put mirrors in lifts because they stop people getting claustrophobic.

[the-locster.livejournal.com]

And let's not forget the placebo button:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_button

Usually the door close button. In the UK you will also see these on busy pedestrian crossings at crossroads where the lights rotate through the two directions of traffic and pedestrians - pressing the button doesn't actually do anything in many such crossings. Also I feel slighly smug when I see people press such buttons :)

[marrog.livejournal.com]

I feel slighly smug when I see people press such buttons

I wouldn't. In most cases of crossroads/T-junction crossings(in Edinburgh certainly) although the cycle won't move any faster if you do press the button, it will bypass the pedestrian crossing period altogether if you don't.

It's the equivalent of the sensors above traffic lights that pick up a car arriving at them during their red phase - if they don't pick up the motion, they won't move off red and will simply continue to let other lanes cycle through.

I know that this is true because I've experienced it both at pedestrian crossings and at traffic lights in a car - on one occasion I was stopped at a set of traffic lights and had to miss the green cycle to let an ambulance pass, and the traffic light didn't change again for some minutes until I realised it wasn't picking up any movement even though there was a long row of cars. I took off the handbrake and let the car roll back, just slightly, and it almost immediately changed to let me out.

[cdave]

But I like pressing buttons!

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Perhaps this is why we need market researchers...