A study found that people decide where they stand based on a micro social hierarchy²（社会等级）, established within seconds of entering the lift.

 

Rebekah Rousi, a Ph.D. student in cognitive³ science, conducted an ethnographic（人种志的） study of elevator behaviour in two of the tallest office buildings in Adelaide, Australia. 

 

As part of her research, she took a total of 30 lift rides in the two buildings, and discovered there was an established order to where people tended stand.

 

In a blog for Ethnography Matters, she writes that more senior men seemed to direct themselves towards the back of the elevator cabins.

 

She said: 'In front of them were younger men, and in front of them were women of all ages.'

 

She also noticed there was a difference in where people directed their gaze half way through the ride.

 

'Men watched the monitors, looked in the side mirrors (in one building) to see themselves, and in the door mirrors (of the other building) to also watch others. 

 

'Women would watch the monitors and avoid eye contact with other users (unless in conversation) and the mirrors,' she writes. 

 

The doctorate⁴（博士学位） student concluded it could be that people who are shyer（羞怯的） stand toward the front, where they can't see other passengers, whereas bolder people stand in the back, where they have a view of everyone else.

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