Why did people finally embrace the change to automatic elevators forty-five years after they were invented, and what does this tell us about the human capacity for change?
Subject: Status Quo Bias - New York Elevator Strike
Event: New York City elevator operator’s strike, 1945
Someone once said, “The only one who likes change is a wet baby.” Change is hard. The way things are now, the status quo, is much more familiar and comfortable. Nevertheless, in order for there to be progress, there must be change.
One example of how hard change can be comes to us from the history of the elevator. Today we take for granted that elevators are automatic, but when elevators were first invented, they had human operators who navigated them from floor to floor and opened and closed their doors manually. The automatic elevator was invented early in the 20th century, but the general public was not ready for the change. The status quo continued for over 40 years until 1945.
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On this day in 1945, New York City elevator operators began a strike that crippled the movement of thousands of office workers and cost the city millions of dollars in lost revenue. Building owners decided it was time for a change; it was time to convince elevator riders that operators were unnecessary. Ads were produced to reassure riders that going it alone was safe. The ads showed both children and the elderly pushing buttons and navigating safely from floor to floor. To further adjust passengers to the change, speakers were installed in the elevators, and as riders entered, they heard the following recorded message: “This is an automatic elevator. Please press the button for the floor you desire” (1).
To assess your own attitude toward the status quo, consider the following thought experiment:
Imagine a man dressed in black knocked on your door one Saturday morning. The man, a stranger, tells you that he has some bad news for you: neurophysiologists accidentally plugged your brain into an experience machine. As a result, all of the experiences you remember from your life to date have been a product of a computer program rather than actual experience. The error was just detected, and the man at your door is very apologetic. He next offers you a choice: you can remain connected to the machine (in which case the memories of this conversation will be erased), or you can be disconnected. Although he doesn’t give you any details about your life outside of the computer program, he does inform you that it is nothing like the one you are currently experiencing.
So, which option would you choose? Would you prefer the status quo or change? In research at Duke University, Felipe De Brigard found that 59% of respondents said that they would stay connected to the machine, while 41% said they would embrace an alternative to the status quo (2).
The lesson of the status quo bias is to understand that when it comes to change, our default thinking is to resist it, opting instead for what is familiar. Not all change is good, and certainly the status quo is not always bad; however, while automatic elevators are an efficient way to travel, automatic thinking is not always the best way to go.
Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason: What are the two choices giving in the “experience machine” thought experiment, and how do the results of the Duke study relate to the Status Quo Bias?
Challenge - Red Pill or Blue Pill: Felipe De Brigard’s thought experiment might bring to mind the 1999 movie The Matrix. In this film Neo is offered the choice of taking a blue pill, which will keep him in his simulated reality, or the red pill, which will plunge into the unknown of the real world. Give some thought to which you would choose and why.
Also on This Day:
September 24, 1896: Today is the birthday of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), known for his novel The Great Gatsby as well as numerous other short stories and novels. In a 1938 letter to his daughter, Fitzgerald presented his powerful case for the English language’s most potent part of speech:
. . . all fine prose is based on the verbs carrying the sentences. They make sentences move. Probably the finest technical poem in English is Keats’ “Eve of Saint Agnes.” A line like “The hare limped trembling through the frozen grass,” is so alive that you race through it, scarcely noticing it, yet it has colored the whole poem with its movement–the limping, trembling and freezing is going on before your own eyes (3).
September 24, 1936: Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets was born in Greenville, Mississippi. He once said, “Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending.”
Sources:
1-Freeman, Joshua B. Working-Class New York: Life and Labor Since World War II
2-Henderson, Rob. “How Powerful Is Status Quo Bias?” Psychology Today 29 Sept. 2016.
3-Open Culture. “Seven Tips From F. Scott Fitzgerald on How to Write Fiction
in Books, Literature, Writing” 26 February 2013.
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