Do highway warnings save lives or cost lives? How do you keep men from peeing on the floor? And what’s Angela’s plan to get more people washing their hands?
Hey, jerk, don't pee on the floor, please.
I'm Angela Duckworth.
I'm Steven Dubner and you're listening to.
No stupid questions today on the show.
Can posting a sign make people change their behavior?
A sign that says, just think how proud your mother would be to know that you're washing your hands right now.
Maybe that's the sign we all need.
Stephen.
We have an email from one Adam wick of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
City of Bridges, city of Steelers and pirates and penguins, and Carnegie Mellon University.
And they also, can we just say, apropos of nothing other than the fact that Adam Wick is from Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is a model city in transitioning from what used to be called blue collar work or heavy industrial to what's sometimes called the knowledge economy.
It's phenomenal.
Yeah.
So anyway, there should be more pittsburghs.
It's also just lovely.
So Adam Wick writes, does posting signs cause behavioral change?
And then he elaborates.
A colleague approached me at work asking for help in improving the design of a sign that he was going to post in the men's room.
The sign provided instructions for how to dry your hands with only one paper towel.
Wash your hands, shake them into the sink at least twelve times, grab a paper towel, fold it in half one time and use it to dry your hands.