“Warning” signs at historical sites tell visitors to relax and enjoy themselves
Signs say something interesting about the herd mentality in people.<p>For example, psychologist Robert Cialdini did an experiment a few years ago to get people to be more respectful of public parks. He found that negative messages actually made people more likely to take items from the park (which they weren't supposed to do). [1]<p>Interestingly, the most effective way to change people's behavior was to leverage peer pressure, making them feel like everyone around them was already performing the desired action. E.g. "98% of hikers don't remove rocks; please don't be the 2%"<p>I'm not saying these two cases are identical, but to me what makes the U.K. signs so effective is that they suggest, in a subtle way, "Hey, you should have a good time because everyone else is enjoying themselves."<p>[1] <a href="http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/06/21/riding-the-herd-mentality-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/" rel="nofollow">http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/06/21/riding-the-herd-menta...</a>