Jonah Lehrer is an editor at large for Seed Magazine. His first book is Proust Was A Neuroscientist. Buy it here.
« Olafur Eliasson | Main | The Genetics of Stress »
Category: Chatter
Posted on: April 24, 2008 2:38 PM, by Jonah Lehrer
It sounds like one of those 1950's psychological experiments that scientific ethics boards no longer allow: Nicholas White was trapped in an elevator in New York City's McGraw-Hill building for forty-one hours. Just thinking about such an ordeal gives me shivers of claustrophobic anxiety. Forty-one hours! In a suspended box!
Thankfully, security cameras caught the whole thing on tape:
And then read the article, which is fascinating throughout.
YES! Send me a free issue of Seed.
If I like what I see, I'll receive 5 more issues (6 in all) for just $14.95. That's 50% off the cover price! If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll simply write "cancel" on the invoice and owe nothing. The free issue is mine to keep.
(Non-U.S. subscribers, click here.)
Comments
Thanks for this post! I clicked on the link and read the whole article--got sucked right in (and consequently did not get my work done) : ). I never knew elevators could be so interesting.
There is a lot of the science of human behavior involved in the design of an elevator. I think it's especially interesting that the designers take peoples' fear into account (for example, by putting in buttons that don't do anything, but make people feel less powerless). It is a little silly, but I can see why being in a buttonless elevator would be extra-frightening. And I'm not even scared of small spaces.
Posted by: Jillian | April 24, 2008 8:05 PM
Having read the article first, before the Internet video sensation of the security-camera footage, I just can't bring myself, yet, to watch it. It is not a happy ending, where Mr. White is today. I worked briefly for McGraw-Hill in the 1980s, downtown, but occasionally went to the Sixth Avenue HQ. To think, it could've been me.
Posted by: Pawlie Kokonuts | April 24, 2008 10:52 PM
It'd be interesting to see if he still stuck to his normal sleeping pattern...
Posted by: Jarret | April 26, 2008 1:42 PM