Broken panes bring bad luck: the broken window theory

behavior of the drivers would depend on the environment. For that reason they had hung up

another board on the fence with the text, ‘No locking bicycles to the fence’. In one scenario

there were four bicycles one meter from the fence. In the other there were four bicycles

locked directly to the fence. In the environment with the freestanding bicycles, 27 percent of

the people slipped through the fence; with the bicycles locked to the fence the figure was 82

percent. The researchers had expected this effect, but were surprised by the big difference.

In another experiment, Keizer and colleagues examined whether the negative effect of

such an environment could spur people on to more serious misdemeanors. This time the

researchers stuffed an addressed envelope half way into a red letterbox. A five-euro bill was

clearly visible through the window of the envelope. Would passers-by take the letter out and

pocket the money? In a clean environment 13 percent did this. When there was graffiti around

the letterbox, the figure doubled to 27 percent.

The explanation which Keizer and colleagues gave was the following. They distinguished three

goals for influencing behavior: ‘normative goals’ (behaving as you should), ‘hedonic goals’

(feeling good), and ‘gain goals’ (improving your material situation). These three goals do not

always weigh equally; their relative weight is affected by the environment. The normative

goal, however, is a priori the weakest of the three and is under pressure from the two other

goals. Environmental factors, such as disorder, push normative goals to the background,

bringing the other goals to the fore. If someone sees that others give the normative goal

less priority, that reduces their own attention for the goal, and laziness and greed gain the

upper hand. If you notice that others violate the rules (for instance by locking their bicycles

to the fence when this is explicitly prohibited), then you yourself will attach less importance

to the normative goal of behaving properly, increasing the chance that you will slip through

the fence. If you see an envelope containing five euros hanging out of a letterbox, then the

disordered environment increases the weight you give to your own gain goal, so you are more

likely to take the envelope. Violation of norms spreads because the normative goal (following

the rules) is weakened, opening up more space for self-interest.

The strength of this theory is that it shows that people not only imitate the behavior of others

(as shown in the previous chapter in Cialdini’s research), but that when people observe

others violating the norms, this also leads them to violate other norms. The normative goal



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is weakened in its entirety. This means that in order to prevent an escalation of violations,

minor misdemeanors and their visible effects should be dealt with quickly, and that if you

want to improve the ethics and integrity of an organization, this must be done in an integrated

and coherent way. If an organization wishes to combat internal fraud, then it must also

prevent antisocial behavior such as intimidation, aggression, and hostility. If an organization

wishes to deal carefully and responsibly with clients, then it must deal carefully with other

stakeholders. Unethical behavior is very difficult to isolate: an organization cannot be ethical

in one relationship or situation, and unethical in another. Unethical behavior, as shown in the

above experiments, is a wildfire that spreads easily.

Keizer’s theory also helps to explain why, if unethical behavior has escalated and spread widely,

this cannot be reversed simply by cleaning up afterwards. The culture is then already so badly

infected that people no longer attach any significance to the normative goal. Much energy

must then be put into establishing and communicating the importance of this. Companies

which have slipped off the rails and been discredited can therefore make a good start towards

recovery by re-evaluating their business mission from a normative perspective, reformulating

business goals, rewriting the code of conduct, making intensive efforts to communicate this,

and providing extensive training to employees. This is the only way to win back territory for the

normative goal, and it will improve behavior on countless fronts in its wake.

If you want to prevent an organization being derailed and a great deal of energy being required

to get things back on track, then the task is to repair “broken windows” in the organization as

quickly as possible.



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16. The office as a reflection of the inner self:

interior decoration and architecture

The director of a regulatory body works with a pistol on the table. Literally. She keeps a pistol

on the meeting table in her office, a model that looks like it came straight out of a western.

Fortunately it is made of porcelain and encased in plastic. For her the pistol is innocent: ‘I had

the opportunity to choose a work of art, and I thought this was really beautiful.’ But do her

visitors feel the same way?

Leonard Berkowitz and Anthony Lepe researched whether the presence of a weapon

in a room influences behavior. The participants were subjected to the irritation of being

made to wait a long time before the experiment began, and they were subsequently

required to administer a shock to another participant. Half of the participants waited in a

room in which a weapon had been placed, as if carelessly left behind, in a corner. For the

other half a badminton racket stood in its place. The researchers registered the duration

of shocks administered by the subjects. What did they discover? In the cases where the

badminton racket had been present, the shock on average lasted a third of a second.

When there was a weapon present, the shock lasted 50 percent longer on average.

According to the researchers, objects in the environment can arouse particular behavior,

just as an innocent unloaded weapon in their experiment led to more aggression. These

objects work as stimuli: they stimulate the brain and evoke particular associations and

behavior.

The accessories in someone’s office can therefore influence the behavior of visitors. A pistol

in the office, even a fake, could lead to more aggressive behavior on the part of visitors.

Likewise the director with a punch ball hanging in his room will have to take into account more

aggression from his visitors. And the director with a fruit machine in his room should not be

too surprised if visitors take more risks.

On the other hand, the set-up of one’s office says something about the inner self: about who

we are, what we consider important and how we are put together. Samuel Goslinga and

colleagues have shown that conclusions regarding a person’s character can be drawn from



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personal spaces, at home and at work. The participants in their research were able to draw

conclusions about a stranger’s character based on their office or bedroom.

Research by Andrew Lohman and colleagues shows that the interior decoration of couples’

living rooms speaks volumes about the quality of their relationship. In their research the

participants were required to sit in the room where they would normally welcome guests

at home. They were then required to point out their favorite objects in the room, and asked

which objects they most wanted guests to notice. Finally the couples noted which objects

were acquired individually and which together. The research showed that the better the

bond between the couples, the more they wanted guests to notice objects which they had

acquired together. Furthermore the better the relationship the more the favorite objects had

been acquired together. So if you are interested in the strength of your relationship, you could

sit down on your couch at home and examine the extent to which you both want the same

objects to be seen by guests and whether you acquired these objects together.

What applies in private also applies at work. The manager who plasters an image of the sales

figures of the past five years over the entire wall of his office shows that he values sales. The

employee who displays all kinds of prizes clearly sees success and scores as important. Anyone

with multiple family photos probably has good family relationships. A cluttered workplace or

office suggests that the person who works there is cluttered too. A tidy workspace, on the

other hand, says that the person is a perfectionist and has his work under control.

Inspecting the offices of an organization can yield a great deal of information about its culture.

The CEO’s office alone says a great deal about values and norms. What are the dimensions,

colors, layout, objects? Is the room on the top floor or on the ground floor? Is it decorated with

personal items? In carrying out such an inspection you must, of course, be prepared to dig

below the surface; a tidy room says nothing if there is chaos behind closed cabinet doors. If

this is the case across much of the rest of the organization, then that is a red flag, because it

increases the likelihood that people think this way about the products they sell and the figures

they publish. The next time you walk into your office, it might be interesting to look around

with a visitor’s eye and ask yourself what the room says about you and your relationship with

the organization.



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