Did you ever feel like you just had to push a button, just because the option was there, maybe with an accompanying sign that says, “push button”? How about if it had a sign saying, “do not push button”? Does that make it even more tempting?
In today’s push-button society, we find it very easy and even desirable to push a button, even if we have no idea what is going to happen as a result. Even if these buttons turn out to be placebo buttons, which are discussed later in the following list, according to psychiatrist Ellen Langer, a Harvard professor, pushing them gives us what she calls the illusion of control. “Feeling you have control over your world is a desirable state….Doing something is better than doing nothing, so people believe.”
A recent “experiment” carried out by the popular social media site Reddit, which is also discussed later in the following list, showed not only how eager users were to join in the act of pushing a button without really knowing why, but how these same users took it upon themselves to build their own virtual society during the experiment. Researchers noted that the users had no common interests and had no substantial incentive to participate, yet they did.
In this top 10, I’ll show you examples of circumstances where people have felt compelled to push a button. While you read about them and watch the videos, you might ask yourself, “Would I have pushed that button?” Enjoy, and be sure to leave your comments below.
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