Almost every elevator I’ve been in has a mirror inside. Exceptions are paternoster or technical elevators.
Does it reduce claustrophobia? Does it make the space look bigger? Does it entertain passengers?
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People are also less likely to perform vandalism and other bad behaviour if they can see themselves in a mirror. May not be the sole purpose but it helps.
The reason i was actually told last week by a uni professor. It’s to make waiting time seem less long.
He said people in general get frustrated with dead or wasted time. By putting mirrors near and in lifts it makes that 30 second wait more bare able and it’s a low cost solution
I read in a book about problem solving (cannot recall the title) about a study done regarding elevators, and waiting times in tall buildings. They realized that if they put mirrors outside of the elevators while people were waiting they were less agitated at the wait times compared to elevators that did not have mirrors. Apparently people can entertain themselves looking into mirrors. *Hence, the birth of influencers…..*
People in elevators face the door. It’s basically taboo in an elevator to turn around. The mirror allows you to see the person behind you without turning around.
There was an old tall building in NY who had a lot of complaints about how slow the elevators were. The building hired a firm to make the elevators faster. After a couple weeks the firm installed floor to ceiling mirrors at the elevator waiting area. When the building asked how mirrors were going to make the elevators faster, the firm said “they wont, but people wont care because they are going to be looking at themselves.” The firm was right. Complaints dropped by 3/4.
they can also be a safety reason — you can see if someone is hiding inside before you step in
I honestly don’t remember the last time I’ve been in an elevator with a mirror.
This is in the US, btw
I can not remember ever seeing a mirror in a elevator. I live in Calif. It seems weird to me that mirrors would not be damaged all the time. I never understood what the need to ruin others property.
Not sure which mirrors you mean. I know that the convex mirrors in the corners in apartment buildings are so you can see if there anybody hiding in the corner of the car waiting to jack you. Or so you can see the whole car behind you and you can see if someone is going to jack you. Elevator muggings used to be a popular thing back in the day. There are still a lot of places where residents will take the stairs so they don’t get trapped in the buildings elevator.
You can see the whole car without really having to look.
The whole mirrored wall? I can only assume that people saying it’s to stop vandalism are correct. Maybe for the same reasons I mentioned too, but it looks nicer? Full mirrors I’ve seen tend to be in nicer apartments or hotels. In the projects, they’d just be broken or stolen.
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