The way options are arranged changes what people notice and choose.
More quotesThe girls understood the rule. They simply preferred the joke. Another reminder would have been educational wallpaper. Then the janitor made the consequence revoltingly visible. One swipe of a toilet-dunked mop and the mirror stopped being a canvas. That is choice architecture with a mop, and it beats the arse off “please respect our facilities”.
We keep trying to out-copy the physical world. A road sign says slow down; the road is wide, straight and whispering go on. Security sends a warning about dodgy links, then makes the safe route a twelve-click pilgrimage. Recycling instructions breed like rabbits while the bins appear to have been arranged by someone who has never met rubbish.
The setting gets the final word because it is there when the choice happens. So inspect the scene. Can people see the preferred move? Is it easy at the exact moment it matters? Does the wrong move produce any useful feedback? Change the friction, default, visibility or consequence. Explain afterwards if you must.
Disgust is a fairly nuclear instrument. Humiliation is lazy. Nobody needs a lavatory brush waved at every behavioural problem. The point is simpler: once people can recite an instruction and continue ignoring it, the copywriter’s shift is over. The problem has wandered into the environment. Sending reminder number six is often management’s way of avoiding the walk after it.