We’ve all experienced that “weird” feeling whenever we take the elevator we use every day. If we are talking to someone when someone comes in, that conversation will stop and there will be an awkward silence, then we will behave like playing with our phone or hair. There are even many unwritten rules that everyone follows when in an elevator, such as not making eye contact, putting on an emotionless face, watching floor numbers.
The short but strange times we spent in the elevator, which are very interesting places socially, have some explanations under it, although many of us immediately forget. So why do we feel this way and act strangely in such an insignificant situation?
The biggest factor is that we get as close to people we don’t know as we would like to.
One of the biggest reasons we feel awkward in an elevator is that each of us has a “personal space”. In our normal life, we are all disturbed when this area is violated and someone gets under our noses. That’s one of the reasons for that feeling when someone else enters the elevator.
The so-called “proxemic” study of personal spaces, introduced by Edward Twitchell Hall, explains this in detail. Hall, an anthropologist, determined 4 levels of personal space with this concept he introduced in the 1960s. These areas, which are distributed according to different distances, are as follows;
- Intimate area: From physical contact to 45cm (usually including people with whom we can hug and become very close, such as family and close friends)
- Personal space: 45 cm – 1.2 meters (with friends and people we know)
- Social area: 1.2 meters to 3.6 meters (used for more social, formal activities or when meeting someone for the first time)
- Public area: 3.6 meters and above (the area where there is no physical contact and very little eye contact. Examples are public areas such as shopping malls, squares, sidewalks, etc.)
When someone else gets on the elevator, our areas in the first two categories can be violated. The fact that these people are foreigners also makes us feel uncomfortable in the already small area. In fact, not only in the elevator, but also in the approach of people we do not know in any place has such consequences. Of course, it would not be wrong to say that the fact that we have nowhere to go in the elevator makes us experience this feeling more intensely.
We try not to look awkward to other people in the elevator.
Speaking to the BBC years ago, Dr. Lee Gray is one of those who draw attention to the strangeness of the elevator. Describing elevators as “socially interesting but very strange places”, the researcher said that elevator users can do whatever they want when they are on their own; but he says that he unconsciously exhibits certain movements when someone comes.
One of these moves is to cross into corners to create the furthest distance. This movement is a direct proof that we need distance. On the other hand, clinical psychologist Prof. Babette Renneberg, on the other hand, told the BBC in the same article that the reason why we don’t feel awkward in elevators is “You don’t have enough space. Usually when we meet someone, we are an arm’s length apart. In most elevators this is not possible. So it’s a very unusual environment. It is not natural,” he explains.
Renneberg adds that in such a small, confined space, people behave in a way that wouldn’t be interpreted as threatening or weird. He states that the easiest way to do this is to avoid eye contact, which is a behavior we all exhibit.
The fact that the elevator is a vehicle that we cannot control and that we are stuck in also makes us feel nervous.
Another reason for feeling weird is being stuck in a big metal box. Elevators are vehicles that we do not have control over, that we cannot see the engine of and do not know how it works. Combined with the thought of being stuck inside until our journey is over, it’s quite normal to feel a little anxious and nervous. In other words, the restriction of our freedom of movement in addition to our personal space is one of the reasons for the strange feelings we experience.
Of course, elevators are not so scary places; It should even be said that it is one of the safest public transportation vehicles. The number of fatal or injured elevator accidents is quite low. So while they’re weird, they’re not dangerous places.
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