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Comment by maxaf | Hacker News Reader

There's an old story about this man who stood quietly next to a closed door in Moscow, said nothing to no one, and did nothing else of interest. Eventually others joined him, and before long a queue has formed. No one knew what they were standing in line for.

Monkey see - monkey do.

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I remember one day I was walking through london with multiple hours to kill; and there was a massive line. Without anything else to do, I just stood in it. Approx 45 minutes later, I got to the front: turns out it was a sale for a clothing store. I didn't really need any clothing, but the discounts were good; so I purchased a jacket. This was 6 years ago and it's still my favourite jacket....

One of Milgram's experiments (not the infamous one) tested this, using people standing on the sidewalk looking up.

https://youtu.be/P0e6zG8IbE8

He might think he's testing conformance, but he actually just tested curiosity.

Wouldn't they at least ask after a while if that was the case?

What makes you think they didn't? I saw lots of people look up, check the people around them and keep going.

I really want to try this out myself now.

Is it really possible that people just continue standing there while not getting why they are doing it? Don't they even care to ask?

Feels like it would take just a single guy to ask: "What are we looking at?" For everyone to realize that they are acting like fools.

So try it! Elevators are wonderful places for things like this :)

Try the classic: enter an elevator and turn around to face the back - see how many copy you.

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