The IKEA Ice Cream Middle Machine Syndrome
I noticed a very interesting psychological real life experiment at Ikea Tampines the other day. It was a classic example of follow the leader, to feel safe, at any cost.
There are three ice cream machine at Ikea Tampines. At that machine, one machine at the left end was not working. The other two was working fine.
Interestingly, there was a long queue at the other extreme right machine waiting to put their cones in the ice cream machine for the delicious soya ice cream.
The middle machine, though it was working fine, had no queue. No one was willing to risk their $0.50 ice cream cone on the middle machine because they was no one using it.
It was until a Ikea staff came about to tell the rest of the queue that the middle machine was working, people started to filter to it.
From the incident above, it shows that we, as a Singapore culture, how much we liked to queue. If there is a queue at one machine and there is none at the other, the machine without the queue is presumed to be not working.
I have also notice that if there two swinging doors and if only is opened, most will rather wait to go through this single door instead of opening the other door to walk through.
We need to take the initiative to trust ourselves to make the next move and not just follow the crowd.
There are three ice cream machine at Ikea Tampines. At that machine, one machine at the left end was not working. The other two was working fine.
Interestingly, there was a long queue at the other extreme right machine waiting to put their cones in the ice cream machine for the delicious soya ice cream.
The middle machine, though it was working fine, had no queue. No one was willing to risk their $0.50 ice cream cone on the middle machine because they was no one using it.
It was until a Ikea staff came about to tell the rest of the queue that the middle machine was working, people started to filter to it.
From the incident above, it shows that we, as a Singapore culture, how much we liked to queue. If there is a queue at one machine and there is none at the other, the machine without the queue is presumed to be not working.
I have also notice that if there two swinging doors and if only is opened, most will rather wait to go through this single door instead of opening the other door to walk through.
We need to take the initiative to trust ourselves to make the next move and not just follow the crowd.
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