British scientists claim to have solved “Broken Escalator Syndrome,” the sense of unbalance when you go onto a stopped escalator. Bottom line — brains are stupid, and prone to thinking the escalator is moving even when it can see that it isn’t.
The phenomenon continues to strike whenever people walk on to a stationary escalator because past experience tells the brain that the steps are meant to be moving, and adjust the legs and body accordingly.
Even when our eyes tell us that the escalator is out of order and we will have to walk up or down, the brain?s habit proves hard to break and makes the compensating movements anyway, resulting in the familiar wobble.
This effect has now been demonstrated by a team of neuroscientists from Imperial College London, led by Adolfo Bronstein and Richard Reynolds, using a specially constructed moving sled.