this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2024
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Posting the shopping cart theory because people had questions in a separate thread (slrpnk.net)
submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

While the moment mentioned doesn't present any immediate problems, it opens up the "well since he put the cart wherever he wanted I can do the same" mindset, we humans learn by example, not all people will stop and acknowledge where and why they are leaving the cart there, they will just do by convenience, we are built this way.

Putting the cart in the correct place is a social agreement, that forgo the convenience of a few to give it to the most.

Imagime if literally all carts were everywhere on the parking lot (an extreme), it would be utter chaos and make massive inconveniences (like people having to remove it from a parking spot to park their car).

The silver lining is, not all conveniences work in all scales.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

First of all, thank you for replying. There's probably many on the subject who would down vote a counter point without even reading, let alone replying.

it opens up the "well since he put the cart wherever he wanted I can do the same" mindset

This seems to make multiple incorrect assumptions:

  1. there's not already multiple carts that could inspire that mindset. There's usually many out of place for much longer. This cart was literally there for less than 15 seconds.
  2. people are biased towards replicating negative behavior. As I said, I grabbed the cart on my way in, but that won't inspiring order the way leaving it inspires chaos?
  3. most people are unable to differentiate between where a cart is easy to grab and where it's just going to linger or get in the way. I know I'm not the only one grabbing carts on my way in. It doesn't take years of cart collecting to notice.

I feel depressed when I see assumptions that seem to view people as really dumb and requiring hard-line, no-exceptions rules. It gets uncomfortably close to an authoritarian worldview. I wrote my previous reply because, while I believe people should put their carts back, and model that behavior myself, I also believe things are rarely black and white and it's valuable to interrogate when that might be.

Edit: add opening thanks