Lots of people are familiar with Pavlov's experiment with dogs, getting them to associate the ringing of a bell with the serving of food, and thus salivate. If you continually pair a feeling with an arbitrary thing, that arbitrary thing will cause the feeling. (Classical Conditioning, for my fellow Psych grads.)
With that in mind, I'm thinking that by the end of summer, Canadians will have a Pavlovian response to construction signs. Just show them the big orange detour sign, and it will cause an automatic response of anger and frustration.
Big deal, you say, everyone knows Canadians hate all the construction in the summer. I realize that's an old complaint, but here's the new wrinkle: The government have started putting those Canada's Economic Action Plan signs at road construction sites. Thus, by the principles of Pavlovian Classical Conditioning, Canadians are slowly developing an automatic response of anger and frustration every time they see Economic Action Plan ads. I think this proves that the Conservative party's team of crack psychologists have really lost their touch. If they were really thinking, they'd order pictures of Justin Trudeau at every road closure.
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