In essay "31" of Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design, we learn about the placebo effect that information can cause. I always kind of thought that those crosswalk buttons never worked, because they literally never did anything every time I happened to press one. But the action of pressing the button did give me the sense that I would in fact be able to safely cross the street soon. The author attributes this same idea to a number of other examples including security signs, IDs, and other types of "in-a-hurry" buttons. A personal example that comes straight to my mind after reading this article involves a "Beware of Dog" sign. This sign is located at a house that I pass when I walk to school. After 2 years of passing this house almost every day, I have not once seen or heard a dog anywhere near that location. Clearly the owner of this house (which also happens to have a pretty intense iron fence around it) thought it would encourage thieves or troublemaking college kids to keep their distance. Little do they know, I'm on to their trickery. Not that I'll be jumping their fence anytime soon, but this placebo effect can only work on random passerby’s. Any "threats" that continually dwell in the immediate area will probably figure out that the "Beware of Dog" sign is just that: a sign with no dog. This is probably how terrorists managed to find their way around airport security. Maybe when it comes to information and safety, continually switching between different approaches and processes would be more effective and successful.
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