Those who long for recognition can go to Switzerland, stand in a former telephone booth and collect automatic praise there.
Mettauertal – Nobody ever says “well done”? Nobody sees how great you have behaved again? Anyone who feels they are not getting enough recognition could consider a trip to Mettauertal in Switzerland.
There, in the tranquil community very close to the German border, there is probably the world’s only shoulder tapping machine.
Mayor Peter Weber had the idea for this. The 62-year-old says he has a saying for which he is widely known: “You did well, stand under the shoulder tapping machine for a quarter of an hour!” When the question kept coming up, where the machine was because stand up, had he got into thinking.
Well, a crowdfunding campaign and a lot of tinkering later, the machine is now, next to a bus stop and diagonally across from the church. The device is inconspicuous and is hidden in a former telephone booth. Anyone who has imagined a mechanical device – for example with an arm that keeps patting down – will be disappointed. “If someone hits their head there, you will immediately have a complaint on your neck,” says Weber. The pat on the back happens here in a figurative, digital sense.
A place for those hungry for praise
There is now a touchscreen where the phone used to be. People hungry for praise can then enter what they have deserved recognition for. But even self-critics who can’t think of anything at first have a chance: They can choose their personal good deed from a long list, for example: “I took on a shift for someone from my company”.
Then the machine offers to take a photo of the benefactor with the option to post it on Facebook. A field for entering the email address follows. And then it finally comes, the praise: in the form of a video of people cheering to folk music and in fast motion, trumpeting, blowing streamers through the area and applauding. In the meantime, a voucher, for example for a local bakery, should have arrived in the e-mail inbox. “It gets far too little praise,” says Weber after demonstrating the machine. “People like to criticize, but how seldom do you praise?”
Astrid Schütz, professor of personality psychology at the University of Bamberg, also sees feedback as essential for wellbeing. “It’s very important for people to be involved and to get recognition,” she says. This also makes evolutionary sense, “because it holds our society together and ensures that we adhere to norms”.
Not that bad at all
The automatic shoulder tapping machine could not give particular praise. “But I don’t think the idea is that bad,” says Schütz. There is the jubilation video, which arouses positive associations – similar to learning apps in which success is rewarded with fanfares or the like. In addition, there is the public aspect, because the selfie can be posted on social networks. “When we do something publicly, it becomes more firmly anchored in our self-perception,” says Schütz. And last but not least, users of the machine would also receive a small present as a very tangible recognition.
With all the praise for praise, the researcher points out that some forms of recognition can also have undesirable consequences. If, for example, banalities were praised, the recipient of the compliment could deduce that nothing really good was expected of him, says Schütz. Keyword: smeared stick figure drawing, which is praised in the sky by enthusiastic grandma.
Praising behavior instead of characteristics
In general, from the psychologist’s point of view, when praising, one should make sure to recognize specific behavior – and not supposed characteristics. “Praise for properties can make you sluggish,” says Schütz. Children who kept hearing that they were smart could develop self-doubts when they fail at school. “They have learned to attribute their performance to their” cleverness “trait. Conversely, this also means that failure is an indication of the limits of one’s own abilities. ”Instead of exerting themselves, children could then rather give up.
Mayor Weber says he does not know whether people really use the machine who lack recognition in life. In any case, many of them come from far away. And one of the most important target groups are children who want to dust off the voucher. This is financed by the business on it, such as the bakery.
For Weber, the machine, which costs around 25,000 euros, is primarily intended to make the Mettauertal community of 2,000 people better known. “It’s incredibly nice to live here,” he says. “Only: If nobody knows, nobody comes.” Brave ideas are also required for this.
A little too brave, however, is probably another idea that haunts his head: a tar and suspension machine to make the bad deeds visible. dpa
