Hey, jerk. Don't pee on the floor, please.

I'm Angela Duckworth.

I'm Stephen 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 you'll 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.

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