> In shopping mall design, the Gruen transfer (also known as the Gruen effect) is the moment when consumers enter a shopping mall or store and, surrounded by an

> In shopping mall design, the Gruen transfer (also known as the Gruen effect) is the moment when consumers enter a shopping mall or store and, surrounded by an intentionally confusing layout, lose track of their original intentions, making them more susceptible to making impulse buys. It is named after Austrian architect Victor Gruen, who disapproved of such manipulative techniques. > The Gruen transfer is a psychological phenomenon in which an idealised hyperreality is realized by deliberate reconstruction, providing a sense of safety and calm through exceptional familiarity. In a speech in London in 1978, Victor Gruen disavowed shopping mall developments as having "bastardised" his ideas: "I refuse to pay alimony for those bastard developments." (citing in case the article ever gets edited in the future) Based on these descriptions it sounds more like Victor Gruen first came up with the technique described in the second paragraph, with good intentions behind it. Then, after implementing said ideas, the effect described first was discovered, and mall owners and other shops started doing this on purpose. Maybe it would be better, and also more fair to Victor Gruen, to explicitly distinguish two as "Gruen transfer" and "Gruen effect", with the transfer causing the effect? (also, as an aside: assuming my interpretation is correct, it's kind of funny that for once Stigler's Law of Eponymy[0] doesn't apply, but in a monkey's paw kind of twist it still backfired) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler%27s_law_of_eponymy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler%27s_law_of_eponymy