My friend Rita suggested that instructions should be given in the positive as opposed to the negative ones which are so common around us. Don't smoke, don't litter, don't jaywalk.
She claimed that when a negative statement is issued, the listener tends to focus on the action rather than the prohibition. So when told not to litter, the listener will hear "litter" rather than "do not."
I kind of concur with her. Whenever I see a "Wet Paint! Don't touch" sign, I am inexplicably drawn to touch to check if the paint is wet.
I shared this observation at a workshop organised by RP a few days ago and a colleague, Orla, shared that in the field of sports, this is indeed a mantra that athletes are trained with. Research in sports shows that when a sports person is told "Don't look down" they will invariably look down. When the instruction is switched over to "Look straight ahead" the sports person then remembers what he or she has to do rather than what he or she is NOT supposed to do.
I have started to apply this to my teaching. Instead of telling my students what not to do, I have started to tell them what to do. Time will tell if this will yield any positive results.
Meanwhile, looking around, it is heartening to see some public announcements have become more positive too. Instead of "don't block the MRT exit" they now have "Let me come out first" although it is still preceded by PCK's trademark "Don't play play." (You win some, you lose some.) Again, it would be interesting to see how effective this new campaign will be.
