Psych!

This morning, on one of the morning shows (CBS I think), they were talking to people in a small town in Ohio where they have been placing life-size cardboard cut-outs of kids on the side of the road. No, it's not a trap for pedophiles...it's to get drivers to slow down. Apparently drivers tend to slow down when they see someone, particularly a child, standing on the side of the road. This makes sense, you don't want them to leap out in front of your car or whatever. Well, some guy in Ohio thought that fake kids would work just as well, so he made some and put them up. According to the story, the LAPD thinks this is a great idea as well and has called the Ohio dude. They say the fake kids work, and they probably do, for about two days.

This story was funny to me because all this week on my way to work I have been faked out by constructions signs. Particularly signs indicating that the left lane will be ending, when it doesn't. On Monday, everyone moved over to the right when they passed the sign, but we soon learned that the left lane was not closed and moved back. On Tuesday, the only people who moved to the right were people who had probably taken Monday off. The rest of us were not about to get snowed twice in a row. Today (Wednesday) nobody moved over at all. If for some reason they actually do shut down the left lane at some point, there will almost certainly be wrecks, because we are all ignoring the signs now, and will be shocked as hell should we come upon cones one day.

I think the same theory would apply to the fake kids. I think that once you drive by the same two-dimensional child, wearing the same clothes, standing in the same place, with the same stupid smile on his face about 4 or 5 times you will learn to ignore him. And I wonder, will people then become even MORE complacent about kids in the neighborhood? Your brain will be so trained to ignore that stimulus that it may not trigger a reaction. The Ohio guy seemed pretty flattered that the LAPD picked up on his idea - clearly the dude doesn't know much about the LAPD. However, maybe they could use this theory in another context. Like if they put a cardboard cut out of a black dude on the side of the road, how long will the cops beat him until they realize he's fake???