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Benevolent deception: "The placebo button effect" » English to Korean

Competition in this pair is now closed, and the winning entry has been announced.

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Source text in English

Over the course of many years, without making any great fuss about it, the authorities in New York disabled most of the control buttons that once operated pedestrian-crossing lights in the city. Computerised timers, they had decided, almost always worked better. By 2004, fewer than 750 of 3,250 such buttons remained functional. The city government did not, however, take the disabled buttons away—beckoning countless fingers to futile pressing.

Initially, the buttons survived because of the cost of removing them. But it turned out that even inoperative buttons serve a purpose. Pedestrians who press a button are less likely to cross before the green man appears, says Tal Oron-Gilad of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Israel. Having studied behaviour at crossings, she notes that people more readily obey a system which purports to heed their input.

Inoperative buttons produce placebo effects of this sort because people like an impression of control over systems they are using, says Eytan Adar, an expert on human-computer interaction at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dr Adar notes that his students commonly design software with a clickable “save” button that has no role other than to reassure those users who are unaware that their keystrokes are saved automatically anyway. Think of it, he says, as a touch of benevolent deception to counter the inherent coldness of the machine world.

That is one view. But, at road crossings at least, placebo buttons may also have a darker side. Ralf Risser, head of FACTUM, a Viennese institute that studies psychological factors in traffic systems, reckons that pedestrians’ awareness of their existence, and consequent resentment at the deception, now outweighs the benefits.

The winning entry has been announced in this pair.

There were 10 entries submitted in this pair during the submission phase, 3 of which were selected by peers to advance to the finals round. The winning entry was determined based on finals round voting by peers.

Competition in this pair is now closed.


Entries (10 total; 3 finalists) Expand all entries

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Language variants:
Entry #25474 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Lee Junho
Lee Junho
South Korea
Winner
Voting points1st2nd3rd
7617 x44 x20
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.383.50 (10 ratings)3.25 (8 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 4 users entered 5 "like" tags
  • 2 users agreed with "likes" (2 total agrees)
방치되었던
Flows well
honorjso
+2
철거
Good term selection
Janeiro
쓸모가 있다는 것이 밝혀졌다.
Flows well
honorjso
선한 속임수
Good term selection
Jasmine Kim
뒤이어 속았다는 것을 알고 나서 품게 되는 분노가
Flows well
Eunbi kang
Entry #24899 — Discuss 0 — Variant: South Korea
Finalist
Voting points1st2nd3rd
283 x45 x26 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.722.44 (9 ratings)3.00 (7 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
  • 1 user disagreed with "likes" (1 total disagree)
-1
1
플라세보
Good term selection
It is stan​dard word,​ more reco​mmanded th​an 플라시보
Efirlus Kim
Entry #25493 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Minkyoung Won
Minkyoung Won
South Korea
Finalist
Voting points1st2nd3rd
252 x45 x27 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.582.75 (8 ratings)2.40 (5 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 3 users entered 3 "like" tags
  • 2 users agreed with "likes" (2 total agrees)
+2
철거
Good term selection
Janeiro
밝힌 바 있다.
Good term selection
Eunbi kang
일면을
Flows well
honorjso


Non-finalist entries

The following entries were not selected by peers to advance to finals-round voting.

Entry #24815 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Jae-hyeok Shin
Jae-hyeok Shin
South Korea
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.422.43 (7 ratings)2.40 (5 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
희열
Flows well
YOUNG KEUN PARK
Entry #25384 — Discuss 0 — Variant: South Korea
Eun-kyoung Park
Eun-kyoung Park
South Korea
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.292.17 (6 ratings)2.40 (5 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 2 "like" tags
  • 1 user agreed with "likes" (1 total agree)
  • 1 user disagreed with "likes" (1 total disagree)
-1
1
뉴욕 당국은 시내에 설치 된 보행자 신호 작동 버튼의 대부분을 비활성화하였다
Flows well
Eunbi kang
+1
이것도 하나의 관점일 뿐으로
Flows well
Eunbi kang
Entry #25408 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Elly Kim
Elly Kim
South Korea
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.102.00 (6 ratings)2.20 (5 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags
Entry #24881 — Discuss 0 — Variant: South Korea
marchoffmap
marchoffmap
South Korea
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.021.78 (9 ratings)2.25 (8 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags
Entry #25469 — Discuss 0 — Variant: South Korea
Minjoo Kim
Minjoo Kim
United States
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry1.791.57 (7 ratings)2.00 (7 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
그들은 전산화된 타이머가 항상 더 잘 작동한다고
Flows well
Miseon Lee
Entry #24892 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
kyung eun Kim
kyung eun Kim
South Korea
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry1.581.36 (11 ratings)1.80 (10 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags
Entry #24908 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry1.511.38 (8 ratings)1.63 (8 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags