After entering the elevator, why are everyone silent?

Elevator is a common means of transportation in modern life. We often encounter and use it on the way home, on the way to work, or during vacation. I wonder if you have noticed that after entering the elevator, what will happen to you? After people enter the elevator, their respective stations usually follow a pattern. If you can overlook it, it will remind you of a side of a dice. In addition, no matter how active people are, they will become silent and serious.

stand like a dice

After a long period of observation and research on human words and deeds in elevators, Dr. Lee Gray of North Carolina State University believes that elevators are a very "interesting public place". Once people enter, they seem to suddenly have an instinctive sense of alignment, tending to Stand in line like a dice roll.

Gray said that if there was only one person in the elevator, he or she would pick nose, tickle, touch up makeup, and do whatever they wanted; if there were two people in the elevator who didn't know each other, they usually Will stand in two diagonally opposite corners to make the distance between the two sides widened; when the third passenger comes in, everyone will subconsciously stand in the three corners, forming a triangle; after the fourth person comes in, everyone Will stand in a corner, the queue becomes a quadrilateral; after the fifth person comes in, he can only stand in the middle. After that, there were more and more people, but people kept their distance as much as possible and stood in various shapes.

After drawing the line of people, you can find that the people in the elevator stand like the dots on a dice. Every time a new passenger comes in, the others begin to move and rearrange.

Spatial distance is broken

In addition, Gray found that most of the people who were chatting would stop talking and start standing upright when they got into the elevator. People are either playing with their phones or looking at the ground, with very little eye contact. Many people who used to be talkative and active will also become serious and silent. The more people there are, the more "dignified" the atmosphere in the elevator is.

This is because elevators do not provide enough space for people, making people feel anxious and making communication difficult, according to Babette Lenneberg, a professor of clinical psychology at the Free University of Berlin in Germany. "Normally, we're about an arm's length away from other people," she said. "But in an elevator, that's not possible. So, the elevator is an unnatural place, any larger movement. It may be misunderstood as threatening, ambiguous, etc., it is better not to communicate at all.”

This is what Westerners call "bubbles". Everyone has their own "bubble" (spatial distance), if this distance is breached, people will feel uneasy and move away consciously or unconsciously. American anthropologist Edward Hall believes that the radius of the "bubble" is between 0.45 meters and 1.2 meters, more than 1.2 meters is social distance, and within 0.45 meters is close proximity. When the elevator is crowded, whether you like it or not, your closeness will be broken, and it seems strange that you don't feel anxious at this time.

Public distance: a space distance greater than 360 cm, generally suitable for speakers and audiences, extremely rigid conversations with each other, and informal occasions. In business activities, it is extremely important to choose and maintain an appropriate distance according to the object and purpose of its activities.

Social distance: about 120-360 cm, which is a more formal relationship in etiquette. In general workplaces, people use this distance to talk, and at small receptions, this distance can be used to greet people who do not have much interaction.

Personal distance: generally between 45-120 cm, which means that you can reach out and hold the other party's hand, but it is not easy to touch the other party's body. This distance is very suitable for discussing personal issues. Generally speaking, this distance is used for friends. .

Intimate distance: within 45 cm, it is a private situation. It is mostly used for couples, and can also be used between parents and children or between close friends. Two grown men generally do not use this distance, but two female confidants often like to communicate at this distance. Intimate distance is a very sensitive area, and special attention should be paid to not easily adopting this distance when communicating.

Etiquette in the elevator

1. First out, last in, do not rush up and block the elevator door.

2. The person who advanced the elevator should press the door button for the person behind, and the person who got out of the elevator last should press the door button for the person who left first. Men, juniors or subordinates should stand at the elevator switch to provide button service.

3. Take the elevator together with the guests, press the button for the guests, and ask the guests to go out of the elevator first.

4. No smoking, no littering.

5. Try to stand in a "concave" shape to provide space for people who come in later.

6. After entering the elevator, stand facing the elevator door to avoid embarrassment.

7. The person in front should stand on the edge and go out first if necessary to provide convenience for those who get out of the elevator.

8. Even if the people in the elevator do not know each other, the person standing at the switch should also do the button service.