Why People Touch “Wet “Paint” Signs

January 14, 2021 –

I often find that people touch a wall or piece of woodwork that has a sign saying “wet paint”? Sure, they can read. But deep down in every one of us is an insatiable desire for proof. We want evidence so much that we touch the paint to satisfy ourselves that it is wet.

Businesses capitalize on this “wet paint” psychology in their industry. If you sell products like brushes or perfume, you can work out some ways to get your customer to touch, feel, smell, or hold your product. The quickest way to do this is to touch, feel, smell, or hold the product first yourself. Then hand it to the customer and watch him do the same thing!

This is an example of the old art of teaching through imitation. Parents teach their children by first doing the thing to show how it’s done. The children then do the same thing, imitating the parents.

As we grow older, we develop this instinct of imitation. We watch a man swing a golf club and we can’t wait to get our hands on one; a woman sees another woman knitting, and she immediately wants to hold the needles herself. This action is an example of the “Monkey see monkey does act of imitation”. And it’s a learning process we all engage in.

In your daily life, are your actions and speech worthy of imitation?