A flood of prohibition signs has begun to appear in public spaces. In stores, signs now ban climbing into refrigerators feet first, and in front of new office buildings, playing ball between the revolving doors is off-limits. Modern playgrounds are plastered with warnings. On one hand, these signs are demanded by the manufacturers of playground equipment; on the other, by the public itself.

"Parents have actually said they want to point things out, but since they can't enforce rules themselves, it's helpful to be able to reference something — to say, look, there's a sign that says this isn't really okay, so please don't do it," said Tarmo Gutmann, mayor of Rae Municipality.

The zoo is also covered in warning signs. According to Tallinn Zoo director Kaupo Heinma, these signs aren't put up without good reason — after all, God's zoo isn't colorful only on the far side of the bars.

"For instance, a sign that says 'Don't lift your child over the barrier, there's a crocodile.' It sounds absurd — who would do that? But then you see it happening, so clearly the sign is necessary," Heinma said.

He recounted incidents where a parent sent their child to give a cookie to a chimpanzee or where adults climbed over the fence to personally feed a bear. While posting signs likely wouldn't absolve the zoo of all legal responsibility in the event of an accident, Heinma said some of the burden still falls on individuals.

Attorney Carri Ginter believes that the proliferation of signs is disproportionate.

"In Estonia's legal system, it's not like if someone sticks their fingers into a bear cage, the zoo would suddenly face major legal trouble," Ginter noted. "Estonian courts are quite reasonable in this regard and compensation amounts are relatively small. This obsession with signs doesn't match the level of actual risk behind them."

According to Tallinn University doctoral student Heiko Leesment, prohibition signs reflect the breakdown of shared social norms. For a ban or warning to be effective, behavioral science emphasizes that its placement, timing and perceived legitimacy are all critical.

"If, for example, there's a 'No Smoking' sign in front of a building, but everyone's smoking there anyway, then that effectively cancels out the ban. Behaviorally, people are more likely to follow social norms than signs," Leesment said.

One reason for Estonia's sign-happy culture, he believes, is difficulty with interpersonal communication. People often don't feel comfortable directly addressing an issue — even with a neighbor — so instead, they put up a sign and hope the message gets through.

"But one thing we need to start looking at in Estonia is the oversaturation of signs," Leesment emphasized. "There's so much noise that people can't take it all in. Entering a building almost requires stopping to study the façade for some kind of script — what pictograms are there, what's allowed, what's not."

According to Ginter, it sometimes seems like people are losing faith in human nature and hoping that, as the average person becomes more foolish, they'll at least still be able to read signs.

"My theory is that stupidity is a constant. I don't think that's changed — we've just started worrying about it more," Ginter said.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!