N.O.R.F Posted October 10, 2012 Many of us use them several times a day without really noticing. And yet the way we behave in lifts, or elevators as they are known in the US, reveals a hidden anxiety. "Most of us sort of shut down. "We walk in. We press the button. We stand perfectly still." Taking the lift could be the least memorable part of your journey to work, but Dr Lee Gray of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has made it his business to scrutinise this overlooked form of public transportation. People refer to him as "the Elevator Guy". "The lift becomes this interesting social space where etiquette is sort of odd," he explains. "They are socially very interesting but often very awkward places." Continue reading the main story Elevator etiquette Dots on six die Passengers seem to know instinctively how to arrange themselves in an elevator... like the dots on a die. With each additional passenger, the bodies shift, slotting into the open spaces. The goal, of course, is to maintain (but not too conspicuously) maximum distance and to counteract unwanted intimacies - a code familiar (to half the population) from the urinal bank and (to them and all the rest) from the subway. The New Yorker: Up and then down Read the full article Conversations that have been struck up in the lobby tend to be extinguished quite quickly in the thick atmosphere of the office elevator. We walk in and usually turn around to face the door. If someone else comes in, we may have to move. And here, it has been observed that lift-travellers unthinkingly go through a set pattern of movements, as predetermined as a square dance. On your own, you can do whatever you want - it's your own little box. If there are two of you, you take different corners. Standing diagonally across from each other creates the greatest distance. When a third person enters, you will unconsciously form a triangle (breaking the analogy that some have made with dots on a dice). And when there is a fourth person it's a square, with someone in every corner. A fifth person is probably going to have to stand in the middle. Now we are in uncharted territory. New entrants to the lift will need to size up the situation when the doors slide open and then act decisively. Once in, for most people the protocol is simple - look down, or examine your phone. Continue reading the main story 'Get me out!' Nick White Nick White was trapped in a lift in his office building for 41 hours. I got into the elevator and pressed 43. There was a momentary dimming of the lights and a little bouncing of the elevator. I waited for a bit, then hit the alarm button. There was just dead silence. At first I just kept pushing different sequences of buttons. I was yelling up and down the shaft. I slapped the walls. I did get mad, I did curse, I did shout at the camera. At some point, I opened the door about two inches and looked down the shaft at an infinite blackness. When I had to urinate I relieved myself down the shaft, with the idea that perhaps that could be a signal to someone. At one point I was wondering if this was going to become my tomb - if they were going to open the doors and there's my corpse. Eventually a voice came over the intercom and said "Is there someone in there?" I jumped up and I said "Yes, there's effing someone in here. Get me out!" Why are we so awkward in lifts? "You don't have enough space," says Professor Babette Renneberg, a clinical psychologist at the Free University of Berlin. "Usually when we meet other people we have about an arm's length of distance between us. And that's not possible in most elevators, so it's a very unusual setting. It's unnatural." In such a small, enclosed space it becomes vital, she says, to act in a way that cannot be construed as threatening, odd or in any way ambiguous. The easiest way to do this is to avoid eye-contact. But perhaps there is more to it than just social awkwardness. "In the back of our minds we are a little anxious," says Nick White, an office worker in New York who was unfortunate enough to be trapped in a lift for 41 hours. "We don't like to be locked into a place. We want to get out of the elevator as soon as possible, because, you know, it's a creepy place to be." During his ordeal, he began to think of another enclosed space that lurks at the back of our minds - a tomb. It would be understandable if White refused ever to step in a lift again. But if you work in a city built on a vertical plane, and if you have aspirations above being a receptionist, that isn't an option. "I certainly remember what happened to me every time I go in one," he admits. "It's part of the commute, the part you have the least control over." Elevator Guy Lee Gray agrees that a sense of disempowerment is the main cause of lift anxiety. "You're in a machine that's moving, over which you have no control. You cannot see the elevator engine, you don't know how it's working," he says. Continue reading the main story Riding high - a history of lifts A worker walks past Art Deco-era elevators inside the new Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago, 2004 • 1st Century BC: The Romans operate lifts using pulleys with human, animal and water power • 1800: Steam-driven lifts are in use in English factories. An expert operator controls each car by manipulating a rope that passes through it • 1853: Elisha Graves Otis unveils a safety device to prevent freefall, paving the way for passenger lifts • Late 1800s: Stately "movable rooms" begin to appear in hotels and department stores - they feature cushioned benches and chandeliers • 1950s: Safety systems that automatically close both sets of doors eliminate the need for operators • Future lifts may employ magnetic levitation technology - a design has also been trialled for a lift to move vertically and then horizontally to navigate larger skyscrapers This sense of passivity in the hands of a machine may become more pronounced as we enter the age of buttonless "smart" elevators. After swiping through security or touching a central control panel, travellers are directed to a lift that has been programmed to stop at their floor, removing the need for any further commands. The system is designed to cut down on unnecessary stops, but although more efficient, some people find the experience unnerving. Continue reading the main story Find out more At lift at the Savoy Hotel, London 1925 The Why Factor is broadcast on BBC World Service on Fridays at 18:30 GMT Listen to the programe via iPlayer Download The Why Factor podcast More from BBC World Service Regardless of the qualms and anxieties associated with lifts, Gray is adamant that they are safer than cars - and significantly safer than escalators. "It is in in fact of one of the safest forms of transportation, if you look at the billions of miles that lifts travel every year and the very, very small number of accidents." We all know this, which is why we continue to take lifts every day, despite our anxieties. "We have learned that we can take an elevator and it is safe to do so," says Renneberg. "So in a way it's a triumph of rationalism over our more animalistic instincts." This pleasing thought - that we become more sophisticated by travelling in lifts - is perhaps one to ponder next time you get in one. Just don't, whatever you do, start a conversation about it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19846214 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Narniah Posted October 10, 2012 Maybe we're all a lil claustrophobic, some slightly more then others. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Xaaji Xunjuf Posted October 10, 2012 I act weird to in the Lift but that's because i saw that movie called devil usually i take the stairs. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alpha Blondy Posted October 10, 2012 lol@Apo, god forbid ever getting stuck in a lift with you. i've taken my fair share of lifts but i can't stand the suffocating smell in a full lift. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar Posted October 10, 2012 Why we behave the way we behave when the plane is taking off and landing. People get very anxious. You won't see any two people engaged in any conversion during the takeoffs and landings. It is an extended version of people in elevators, albeit being a minor anxiousness in elevators. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alpha Blondy Posted October 10, 2012 check this vid out. everything wrong about lifts. ] Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tillamook Posted October 10, 2012 I don't know about you lot, but whenever I get in an elevator, I get a strong urge to partake in a bit of flatulence. Most of the time, I am able to resist the temptation to unleash one, but there have been a couple of times in my life when I've let a hot one rip just before someone else boarded the darn thing. Call it bad luck, or bad manners, but it's times like that I wish I had the indha-adeygnimo of my Mudug countrymen. :D Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Malika Posted October 11, 2012 ^Eeww. I dont have problem with lifts, just the other day caught myself checking my gums on the lift mirror only to realise after I got off, that there is a camera in there - glad it was only my gums I was checking out and not adjusting anything else..heh Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mustafe Posted October 11, 2012 ^ Lol, Malika it coulda been much worse, as happened to the Egyptian president not long ago Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
N.O.R.F Posted October 11, 2012 What would using lifts be like back home? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alpha Blondy Posted October 11, 2012 N.O.R.F;879069 wrote: What would using lifts be like back home? lol@NORF, you're a funny guy ma istiir NORFoow! you know very well there are no lifts here. but the closest thing to lifts is probably public buses. i know you're not a bus guy anywhere and even more so during your recent visits to Somaliland. I'm a bus guy by my very nature, ruunti. i use to take the bus all the time during my first 6 months here and walahi i've never seen anything like it. its busy, its congested, its uncomfortable and so many different things. its a social space but with different dynamics to lifts, i suppose. people interact more and the public conversations can range from personal issues to matters of national importance. its a space with a social hierarchy and all the front seats are usually occupied and reserved for the elderly. its touchy-touchy and there are lots of bodily movements and connections that would make any lift journey seem 'spacial' lol. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nin-Yaaban Posted October 11, 2012 Aniga jaran jarada ayaaba iska jecIahay. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tillamook Posted October 11, 2012 Malika;879010 wrote: ^Eeww. I dont have problem with lifts, just the other day caught myself checking my gums on the lift mirror only to realise after I got off, that there is a camera in there - glad it was only my gums I was checking out and not adjusting anything else..heh No, indeed, we wouldn't want you to give a free peep show, would we? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chimera Posted October 11, 2012 I prefer taking the stairs. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bluelicious Posted October 11, 2012 I have no problem with elevators they don't make me anxious or feel claustrophobic. I try to avoid the lift up to the 4th floor and take the stairs anything above that will most likely use the lift. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
