Question

Very often, people who enter an elevator will face the direction that the other people are already facing. Your task is to ride an elevator for several floors eight times. Enter the elevator and stand the opposite direction of how the other people are standing. Take note of what happens. Do the present people turn and face in the direction you stand? Do the people who load onto the elevator after you choose to stand in the direction you stand? Exit the elevator after traveling a few floors. Then get ready to repeat the process seven more times. Print out the data collection sheet and keep a pencil handy but out of sight. Each time you exit the elevator, take a minute to record any conforming behavior. Were you able to influence the direction that people stood when they entered the elevator? (Yes/No). Did people change their standing direction while already in the elevator? (Yes/No) Write a few paragraphs describing your elevator experience. Provide details for each of your eight trials. Describe whether or not you experienced people conforming while riding the elevator. What's your opinion of this?

Answer 1

In the first trial there were quite a few people in the elevator and when I got in and turned the opposite direction nobody turned around or changed directions. The second time there was only was only two people in the elevator and when new people got to get in they turned the way I was facing. The third trial there was five people in the elevator and when I faced the opposite direction they turned the direction I was facing. The fourth and fifth trials there was not many people in the elevator and nobody turned my direction but this may have been because the people in the elevator were a family and stuck with what each other did over what a stranger did. The sixth trial I was the only one in the elevator and when new people got in they changed the direction I was facing. The seventh trial nobody turned the direction I was facing until one person did and then the three other people in the elevator also did this. The eighth and final trial there was seven people in the elevator and nobody turned.

I think that the people may have turned around because they thought that the elevator would open that way because some of them seemed very surprised when they had to turn back around to get out of the elevator. Another reason this may have the people may have turned around when I did is because humans desire to follow the pack and one part of the pack did something different they assume it is for a reason.