Pull

The young man was lead to a small cell with a door marked “pull” in red lettering on its interior. He stood in the middle of the room, listening to the jangling of the keys as the attendant locked the heavy metal door.

Above the door frame, in a simple cursive font: “A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that’s unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Culture and Value, 1977

Within minutes the bored young man had seated himself against the far wall and watched the gray door expectantly with its bright lettering and the quote above it. After an hour, a calm female voice spoke through the small speaker in the CCTV camera in the corner of the room, “Thank you for your assistance in this experiment. You can leave the room at anytime.”

Convinced the experiment was fixed, because try as he might, the door would not swing open. Frustrated, the young man grew angry, finally demanding to be released.

Soon an older man, in a knee-length white medical coat entered his cell, saying, “You’ve been able to leave this room anytime you wanted.”

“No I couldn’t,” the young man argued. “The door’s been locked.”

“No — it’s never been locked,” the examiner stated, stepping to the door and pushing it open.