Gross messages 8216;make students wash hands after loo8217;

For their study, the researchers at the University of Denver posted messages in the bathrooms of two undergraduate residence halls with messages like 8220;You just peed, wash your hands8221;, accompanied with vivid graphics and photos.

The gross messages resulted in a 26 per cent increase in hand washing among females and an eight per cent increase among males, the study found.

However, observations in two control dorms over the same four-week period showed that hand washing decreased by nearly two percentage points among females and 21.5 percentage points among males.

8220;Fear of spreading germs or getting sick by not washing didn8217;t mean much to students. What got their attention was the knowledge that they might be walking around with gross things on their hands if they didn8217;t wash,8221; the study8217;s lead author Renee Botta said.

Though they tried gross messages, germ messages and you8217;ll-get-sick messages, the researchers said that the only ones with an impact were the 8220;gross messages8221;.

8220;In fact, the relevance of the message is really, really important. You can threaten that they8217;ll get the flu or promise a flu-free winter, but if they don8217;t really care about that, your message is going to fall flat,8221; Botta said.