Unexpected spatial form can freeze a city dweller’s ability to act

Evidence

And there’s a screen between them and the restaurant itself. You know I could have simply taken it off and said, sorry, thank you and walked out. But just the situation, I was so dumbfounded. … And as I think back on it and picture it in my mind, an awful lot had to do with because it was dark in there. For some reason it just kind of … I was in a semistate of shock anyway and then this darkness. I couldn’t orient myself. I couldn’t get myself into this kind of groove that would tell me, now listen, this is not what I want, get out of here. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 632