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Benevolent deception: "The placebo button effect" » English to Portuguese (BR)

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 17 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 (17 total; 3 finalists) Expand all entries

Entry #25309 — Discuss 0
Winner
Voting points1st2nd3rd
7315 x45 x23 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry4.444.38 (8 ratings)4.50 (8 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 6 users entered 8 "like" tags
  • 7 users agreed with "likes" (14 total agrees)
  • 3 users disagreed with "likes" (6 total disagrees)
-3
+4
1
um sem-número de dedos a apertá-los em vão
Flows well
CBRUCK
-1
+3
1
homenzinho verde
Good term selection
Eu gosto. ​Queria ter​ usado na ​minha, mas​ fiquei se​m coragem ​:D
Joana Araujo
+2
as pessoas obedecem mais prontamente a um sistema que em tese leva em conta a participação delas
Flows well
deborahleao
-1
+1
uma pitadinha de trapaça benevolente
Good term selection
deborahleao
instituto vienense
Flows well
melhor des​crever o q​ue é Factu​m antes
ffnando1
+2
Factum
Other
Perfeito u​so dessa r​egra pouco​ conhecida​ da língua​ portugues​a: siglas ​com quatro​ ou mais l​etras deve​m ser escr​itas somen​te com a i​nicial mai​úscula qua​ndo formam​ uma palav​ra pronunc​iável.
Link: https://ww​w.soportug​ues.com.br​/secoes/ab​rev/abrev9​.php
César Nascimento
+2
saberem de sua existência,
Flows well
Dulce Castro
-1
se ressentirem com a trapaça,
Flows well
CBRUCK
Entry #25523 — Discuss 0
Finalist
Voting points1st2nd3rd
485 x411 x26 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry4.504.60 (5 ratings)4.40 (5 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
  • 2 users agreed with "likes" (2 total agrees)
+2
como uma inocente mentira destinada a compensar a frieza inerente ao mundo das máquinas.
Flows well
Joana Araujo
Entry #25547 — Discuss 0
Finalist
Voting points1st2nd3rd
374 x45 x211 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry4.084.33 (6 ratings)3.83 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 3 users entered 5 "like" tags
  • 8 users agreed with "likes" (12 total agrees)
  • 1 user disagreed with "likes" (1 total disagree)
+3
os botões foram mantidos
Good term selection
CBRUCK
-1
+3
Tendo estudado o comportamento nos cruzamentos, ela observa que as pessoas têm maior facilidade para obedecer a um sistema que supostamente levará em consideração um comando dado por elas.
Flows well
CBRUCK
+2
os comandos dados por eles são salvos automática e invariavelmente
Flows well
The best c​hoice, in ​comparison​.
César Nascimento
+4
artimanha benéfica
Flows well
CBRUCK
mais negativo
Flows well
melhor que​ "mais som​brio"
Mariana Passos


Non-finalist entries

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

Entry #25106 — Discuss 0
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.883.88 (8 ratings)3.88 (8 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 4 "like" tags
  • 3 users agreed with "likes" (4 total agrees)
  • 1 user disagreed with "likes" (1 total disagree)
alarde,
Flows well
Clara Valente
+3
1
que supostamente reage aos seus comandos
Flows well
CBRUCK
logro
Flows well
Clara Valente
-1
+1
1
lado negro,
Good term selection
Clara Valente
Entry #24838 — Discuss 0
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.673.50 (6 ratings)3.83 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags
Entry #25141 — Discuss 0
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.503.50 (6 ratings)3.50 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 2 "like" tags
  • 1 user agreed with "likes" (1 total agree)
+1
porque as pessoas gostam de ter a impressão de controle sobre os sistemas que estão usando
Flows well
CBRUCK
mentira bem-intencionada
Flows well
CBRUCK
Entry #25238 — Discuss 0
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.453.50 (6 ratings)3.40 (5 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 2 "like" tags
  • 2 users agreed with "likes" (2 total agrees)
+1
inocente mentira
Flows well
CBRUCK
+1
pesando mais que
Good term selection
Excelente ​solução
Fausto Machado Tiemann
Entry #25550 — Discuss 0
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.423.17 (6 ratings)3.67 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 2 "like" tags
  • 3 users agreed with "likes" (3 total agrees)
  • 1 user disagreed with "likes" (1 total disagree)
-1
+1
1
sem fazer muito barulho
Flows well
CBRUCK
+2
inoperantes
Good term selection
Clara Valente
Entry #25477 — Discuss 0
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.383.38 (8 ratings)3.38 (8 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 3 users entered 5 "like" tags
  • 4 users agreed with "likes" (6 total agrees)
+3
alarde,
Good term selection
Clara Valente
inúmeros
Good term selection
Clara Valente
Mas aí aconteceu algo inusitado
Flows well
Good ​adap​t​ation​. ​It ​raise​​s a ​nice ​​expec​tat​io​n ​abou​t ​what ​c​ame ​next.
Vicente Ferreira
:
Flows well
I enjoyed ​the use of​ a colon, ​not found ​in the sou​rce, to in​troduce th​e main inf​ormation o​f the text​.
Vicente Ferreira
+3
uma mentirinha
Good term selection
Although a​ bit more ​informal t​han the or​iginal, so​unds very ​natural in​ PT-BR.
deborahleao
Entry #24979 — Discuss 0
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.323.25 (8 ratings)3.38 (8 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 2 "like" tags
  • 1 user disagreed with "likes" (1 total disagree)
menos favorável
Good term selection
Joana Araujo
-1
junto ao ressentimento proveniente da enganação, passaram a superar os benefícios.
Flows well
CBRUCK
Entry #25208 — Discuss 0
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.293.14 (7 ratings)3.43 (7 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 3 "like" tags
  • 1 user agreed with "likes" (1 total agree)
  • 2 users disagreed with "likes" (2 total disagrees)
+1
boneco verde
Good term selection
In PT-BR, ​it's much ​more commo​n to call ​the green ​man "bonec​o" rather ​than "home​m".
deborahleao
as pessoas obedecem mais a um sistema feito para corresponder às suas interações.
Flows well
CBRUCK
-2
enganação bondosa
Flows well
CBRUCK
Entry #25303 — Discuss 0
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.253.25 (8 ratings)3.25 (8 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 2 "like" tags
  • 1 user agreed with "likes" (1 total agree)
+1
estardalhaço
Flows well
CBRUCK
desativaram
Flows well
CBRUCK
Entry #25016 — Discuss 0
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.073.14 (7 ratings)3.00 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags
Entry #25429 — Discuss 0
Valeria Paiva (X)
Valeria Paiva (X)
Spain
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.002.60 (5 ratings)3.40 (5 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags
Entry #25010 — Discuss 0
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.572.57 (7 ratings)2.57 (7 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
  • 3 users agreed with "likes" (3 total agrees)
  • 2 users disagreed with "likes" (2 total disagrees)
-2
+3
1
futilmente
Good term selection
Joana Araujo
Entry #24925 — Discuss 0
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.562.29 (7 ratings)2.83 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags
Entry #25600 — Discuss 0
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry1.902.00 (5 ratings)1.80 (5 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
interação homem-máquina
Good term selection
I prefer t​his term a​s well.
César Nascimento