Monday, July 16, 2007
The Disutility of U-Turns
On Friday afternoon, Martin and I were leaving his office with every intention of leaving the building. A relatively straightforward task, you might think. It was complicated by the fact that I had to pick up my lunchbox from the fridge in the common room. He turned right, I turned left. An embarrassed silence fell on the corridor. Though I knew his way to be the shorter route, I was loath to use it on the grounds that it involves passing our final destination (the building’s exit) on the way to fetch my lunchbox. On principle, I find making a U-turn abhorant. Anecdotal evidence suggests I’m not alone in this. I can’t find any academic evidence to support it though. Travel costs would give a very straightforward measure of people’s willingness to pay to avoid the cognitive dissonance experienced in making a physical u-turn. How would everyone feel about being strapped up to a pedometer for a few months?
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6 comments:
The usual reason I don't go that route is I don't want to bother with my swipe card!
Would one walk a longer route in order to avoid backtracking along a different route that is shorter?
I think the answer to this question is worth us all wearing pedometers!
i think caitlin has hit the nail on the head with her observation. The swipe card offers a clear indication as to the natural flow of the route. It might, however, be worthwhile to plot the point of no return.. so that we can always chose the optimal route, by metric of time and energy. I'm not a fan of pedometers but i'd consider it in the interests of science.
If we were to succomb to a pedometer experiment, I wonder if we could also aim to explore the 'street U-turn'... Has anyone noticed if women are more likely to stop suddenly in the street and either turn around or change their direction completely? (presenting an added challenge when walking through a busy street) I've been accused before now of being more likely to do it because of being a woman...
I think you'd have to couple the pedometer with a test of everyday attention or cognitive failures type questionnaire and also take into account the amount of places or events which register on ones radar as prospective memory cues at a given time. We can predict that u-turns would be more likely for women walking past brown thomas based on the activation of goals such as "damn I forgot about the white shawl with the sequins that would match my pink dress for the wedding" or for guys walking past the sports fields "damn I forgot about my zinedine zidane shin guards that I need to play 5 aside later"... ah politically incorrect u-turns!
If there is a popular acceptance that changing one's mind is a "woman's prerogative" then the psychic cost may be lower for women. An interesting test is whether one's willingness to change depends on how public the occasion is i.e. is it just not how one appears to others?
My own suspicion is that people with bigger ego's find it harder to admit they made a mistake [hang round universities long enough and you are driven to this conclusion].
& Thanks for reminding me of that white shawl,Michael, it will go so well with my new shoes.
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