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" You want the smartest life advice in the world? Don&amp;#039;t ask A.J. Jacobs. Ask A.J. and his 122,000 Facebook friends. Esquire&amp;#039;s editor-at-large sifts through the wisdom of the crowd to solve all your toughest questions about sex, manners, food and the issue of thick, lustrous arm hair. Send questions to @ajjacobs, or ask A.J. via his Facebook page. THIS WEEK&amp;#039;S QUESTION &amp;quot;When you&amp;#039;re in an elevator, and you see someone in the distance heading toward it, when is it okay to not hold the door? I&amp;#039;ve always thought you could let it close if they would have had to break into a run to make it.&amp;quot; \u2014Dennis C. Bentley, Hillsboro, Missouri  Dennis, my Facebook friends split into three camps on this: the open-door policy absolutists, the closed-door absolutists, and the &amp;quot;it depends&amp;quot; crowd. Let&amp;#039;s break down their arguments. Always Hold the Door  About 30 percent of my Facebook friends said it&amp;#039;s almost always best to hold, for reasons of karma, the Golden Rule, and all that.  In fact, Ande Burke argues that such a policy is crucial to the very existence of our species. &amp;quot;If you aren&amp;#039;t thinking of the other person,&amp;quot; she says, &amp;quot;our society is doomed.&amp;quot; (Or stuck in ugly lobbies, which is pretty much the same thing.)  The definitive proof that good things happen to good people comes from Kim Rollins. She was going to a doctor&amp;#039;s appointment, and held the door for a slow-walking woman. A few minutes later, that woman turned out to be her mammogram technician. &amp;quot;The moral of the story,&amp;quot; Kim writes, &amp;quot;is that it always pays to be courteous, because you never know who&amp;#039;s going to be smashing your breasts between two glass plates later.&amp;quot;  And if the appeal to conscience doesn&amp;#039;t persuade you, then perhaps Eli Reiter&amp;#039;s appeal to self-interest will: &amp;quot;If there&amp;#039;s a chance they will make it without your help, and you don&amp;#039;t help, and they make it, you will experience the longest elevator ride ever. Help a stranger.&amp;quot;  Never Hold the Door  A small but vocal contingent (6 percent) of my Facebook friends\u2014who are apparently cat-stroking Bond villains\u2014contended that you should never, ever hold the door.  &amp;quot;Libertarian answer: It&amp;#039;s their problem,&amp;quot; writes Joonas Vakkilainen. He adds, &amp;quot;And what if those people are not heading toward the elevator? That means I&amp;#039;m publicly mistaken. Too embarrassing. It&amp;#039;s better never to hold the doors.&amp;quot; (I&amp;#039;m not sure whether Joonas is joking or not. But I don&amp;#039;t want to ask and be publicly mistaken, so to avoid embarrassment I&amp;#039;ll just assume he&amp;#039;s telling the truth.) James Perly offers an alternative approach: &amp;quot;I stare into their eyes as I push the &amp;#039;close door&amp;#039; button.&amp;quot; Which is, at least, better than pretending to frantically search for the &amp;quot;open door&amp;quot; button, and then acting as if you were unable to find the button in time, so you shrug your shoulders as if to say, I tried, but there are so many darn buttons on this panel! Which one is the one that opens the door? Could it be the one that says &amp;quot;open door?&amp;quot; I have no idea!  Maybe Hold the Door Then we have the moral relativists. Several Facebook friends mentioned eye contact as one factor that might influence your decision. If you&amp;#039;ve looked into the eyes of the potential rider, they argued, you should hold the door.  I actually disagree, since there are many ways for you to avoid eye contact (stand in the corner, study the fascinating floor numbers\u2014Hey, they skipped the number 13? What is the deal with that?!). Plus, I&amp;#039;m not sure why lack of eye contact relieves you of your moral duty. If a drowning man doesn&amp;#039;t make eye contact, do you walk on by and let his lungs fill with water?  Another factor frequently cited: physical attractiveness. Hold if hot. Again, I disagree. Unless they are really hot, like Megan Fox hot. The Verdict The elevator problem is a complicated moral equation that depends on many factors. Here are the things I think should play into your decision:  1. Are there twenty other supersonic elevators that will arrive any second? Or are you on a single ancient steam-powered elevator?  2. Is the wannabe rider making an effort\u2014striding purposefully or, better yet, running? Or is he/she strolling and chatting on a cell phone?  3. Are there fifteen other people in the elevator who may or may not have urgent business that outweighs the needs of the single rider?  I&amp;#039;d take all these into account, and err on the side of holding the door.  And if that&amp;#039;s too much to remember, just avoid the dilemma altogether. As Devon Dale says, &amp;quot;Take the stairs. It&amp;#039;s better for you anyway.&amp;quot;  Additional thanks to contributors Cristobal de la Maza, Rachel Fitzgerald, Jonathan Perkel, David Luna, Janice Isaac, Deann Jackson, Udi Blankstein, Yuki Hayashi, Leslie Meyers, Lane Filler and Denise Schumacher Aasen.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/news/a28100/huddled-masses-elevator-etiquette/>