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April 23, 2005
Worth the Effort
Here's an interesting observation I’ve recently made. Imagine the following situation. Telly is walking up to a building and entering it. Several yards behind him is Burt, who is approaching the same door that Telly is now at. Telly could open the door, enter the building, and go on his way ignoring Burt, or Telly could open the door, look back, and hold it for Burt who is approaching. I can’t predict very accurately whether Telly will simply enter the building or hold the door for Burt. However, I can tell you with reasonable confidence that if Telly holds the door, and looks back at Burt, Burt will increase his pace so that he doesn’t keep Telly waiting.
Ironically, Telly’s kindness has turned into a social obligation for Burt. Let me explain. By holding the door open, Telly is relieving Burt from expending the energy to operate the door himself. But by saving Burt the trouble of opening the door, Telly has actually induced Burt to hurry through the door, hence pressuring him to exert additional energy. A simple energy equation demonstrates that more energy was consumed in the kind gesture—Telly held the door open longer than he needed to and Burt scrambled through it.
This proves that kindness is not always efficient, but it doesn’t prove that Telly should not hold open the door for Burt. That’s the beauty of us humans, we’re not always very rational. And I love that, because being polite is worth the trouble.
Posted by fstone at April 23, 2005 5:55 PM
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