Everyday ‘Placebo Buttons’ Create Semblance of Control
August 21st, 2016
Via: 99% Invisible:
Late for work in Manhattan, you push the crosswalk button and curse silently at the slowness of the signal change. You finally get a green light, cross the street, arrive at the office, get in the elevator and hit the close door (>|<) button to speed things along. Getting out on your target floor, you find that hurrying has you a bit hot under the collar, so you reach for the thermostat to turn up the air conditioning. Each of these seemingly disconnected everyday buttons you pressed may have something in common: it is quite possible that none of them did a thing to influence the world around you. Any perceived impact may simply have been imaginary, a placebo effect giving you the illusion of control.
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“I voted” Ha. Nice juxtaposition with the article. That subject is worth expanding on. And aside from the illusion of free choice, just how many things do we do that have no real purpose? Or, a different purpose than what we perceive?
One of many important points in the book, The Illusion of Free Choice in America, was that advertising and propogand affect you – no one is immune. Your awareness of it helps you mitigate the affects, not eliminate completely. Put another way, if you think it doesn’t get to you, then you don’t fully grasp the insidious nature of it’s omnipresence. …it’s radiating from every conceivable direction.