Nobody puts up safety signs without reason. Slippery when wet. Sharp turn ahead. High voltage. Keep out. These bits of information are aimed to help you move around places and inform you where you're going. They let you know what you can do and, more often, what's off-limits. Whether by warning or guiding you, they are intended to send clear messages that would make any perplexed citizen feel instantly at ease. Usually.
Because sometimes, the warning turns out to be scarier than the danger itself. Of course, it's better to be safe than sorry, but some signs involve such specific and life-threatening messages that they instill fear, suspicion, and overwhelming worry in anyone who crosses their path. We're talking about oddly terrifying messages that remind us our vast world is filled with unpredictable hazards from which we'd like to stay as far away as possible.
Below, we at Bored Panda have compiled a list featuring some of the most intimidating and scary signs found around the world. So buckle up, pull your seat closer, and behold these sinister signs that are bound to make you a little unsettled. Scroll down and upvote the best ones! And after you’re done, more of the same madness awaits in our previous features on the same topic here and here.
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This Sign In My Neighborhood
Legit Sign Post
Applying New Window Sticker
It’s no secret that signs are everywhere we look. Most of them have a function and purpose, mainly to keep us out of harm’s way. We may not often think about it, but these messages play a crucial part in keeping us safe during our day-to-day lives. They inform us when to stop at an intersection, if there are threats ahead or when it’s safe to cross the road. But unfortunately, we get so used to seeing them that we don’t even bat an eye.
While we would never fear a stop sign or a road sign as we’re bombarded with these bits of information every day, you’d think that threatening announcements of dangers hard to imagine would make us stop and run the other way. Or, at the very least, make us consider what actually happened and what was the reason for their placement.
This Corn Maze Sign
Well, That's Not A Good Sign
This Sign Asking People To Wear A Mask. It's On The Wall Outside A Classroom. Saw It On The News This Evening
However, even the most terrifying or daunting signs that warn us of potential hazards and uneasy consequences if we refuse to obey sometimes get overlooked. And there are many reasons we ignore or even disregard these messages, whether we believe that we know better, think they don’t apply to us, or simply wish to add a dash of thrill and adrenaline into our daily lives.
Moreover, we humans have exceptional adaptability to tune out most of the awful and disruptive things happening around us. But that skill is downright useless on the road, as only a few milliseconds can mean the difference between life and death when you need to deal with troubles ahead.
An Eerie Underwater Cave Death Warning Sign
Nice Sign... Wait
Found This Gem At The Zoo In Miami
According to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research, drivers react more quickly to road signs with symbols depicting motion. The researchers took a deeper look at whether different sorts of signs — particularly the ones depicting movement — do a better job of forcing drivers to pay attention to the road.
"Warning signs are static visuals, yet they can vary in their ability to evoke a sense of movement. For example, the children depicted in a school crossing sign can be drawn as if they were running or walking. We discovered that more dynamic warning signs lead to quicker responses and changes in behavior," study authors, marketing experts Luca Cian, Aradhna Krishna, and Ryan S. Elder, wrote.
Sign On A Cemetery Gate
An Actual Road Sign My Sister Found In Alaska
This Restaurant Sign That Is Half Shadows
It turns out that to truly make roads feel safe, they must feel dangerous. The researchers came up with five studies that examined how drivers reacted to movement on road signs. They used eye-tracking technology, surveys, and driving simulations and found that "higher dynamism" signs — think a running stick-figure pedestrian — did a better job of attracting driver attention and heightening risk perception.
In each study, the participants reacted more quickly and stopped sooner when signs had more dynamic symbols. This may, in turn, translate to more vigilance and attention from behind the wheel.
"While we have chosen to focus on traffic icons, our findings extend well beyond this domain. Since more dynamic symbols can impact behavior, increasing dynamism in recycling icons, packaging for health foods, and other contexts where behavioral changes are desirable should prove valuable for public policy and consumer welfare," the authors noted.
This Should Not Be Hanging In My Soon-To-Be-Kindergartener’s Classroom
That's horrifying and heartbreaking children have to learn that at an age where they don't even understand what death is😪 they deserve their innocence for longer
This week, my 11 year old student said he is afraid to go to highschool because what if someone brings a weapon to school ??
Load More Replies...El Salvador? Brazil? United States? I mean, we hear the horror stories coming from the US, which only tells me that wealthy, often white society makes international news when gun violence tragedies happen. America has to get its gun problem taken care of, but it’s hardly the most dangerous place for children to go to school & confront gun violence. We need to support gun reform everywhere it’s a measurable threat.
Load More Replies...That is both deeply disturbing and horrifyingly heartbreak. The United States seems to value gun rights over the safety and well-being of their children.
Yup. You’re absolutely correct. As per my last comment, know that it isn’t the majority of Americans with this questionable ethic. It just happens to be a powerful minority that protects the status quo.
Load More Replies...It's reality in the United States. We have fire drills to save lives. We have active shooter drills to save lives. Public or private schools it doesn't matter. A selfish idiot with an AR15 wanting the highest body count on the leaderboard will go where it easiest to take the most lives.
All I hear is “Ring around the Rosie’s” and it’s giving me the heebie jeebies
I am an American and all of my family is as are most of my friends. All of us believe in gun control. None of us own a gun and we all vote. The NRA has most of the US.Senate in their pocket (and on their payroll.) This is how this gets done. My friends, family and I feel helpless with every school shooting. Other than voting we can't do anything else to stop this madness. To generalize all Americans as gun toting rednecks is wrong. And to the person who posted that they would move away if they lived here? Really? Think about that. To actually move to another country? Even for those who can actually afford that there is so much more involved as you can imagine. I have never even seen or held a gun in my entire life. We, in the states don't need your criticism, but maybe some encouragement instead.
I dont get it… it looks like a lockdown sign. But judging by @Ange Marsedens opinion, i think it needs to just be locks lights out of sight
Apparently the price of freedom is half the population living in fear every single day
its horrible that this has to be tought to these young of people, they barely know their abcs (also the M on the chart is MLK which I love)
there was a time we had to go into lockdown at my middle school becuase there was someone armed in the area, and it is really terrifying. it is so sad that such young kids have to learn that.
Scary. But I also remember air raid drills when I was in elementary school. None of us kids had ever been in the basement of the school buildings, so dark, lots of pipes, minimal lighting. Didn't like them.
*Sigh* 2 people under the age of 15 have died by lightning in 2022. 243 children ages 0-11 and 998 teens ages 12-17 have been murdered by gun violence as of today. (sources below because I imagine you'll be a d**k and call me a liar) http://lightningsafetycouncil.org/LSC-2022-Fatalities.html https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/
Load More Replies...I Live In A Very Classy Area
I can imagine they've got a high rate of last minute cancellations!
Genuinely The Scariest Sign I've Seen In A While Among A Pretty Spooky Looking Forest
"From evolutionary psychology, we know that humans have developed systems to maximize the chances of detecting potential predators and other dangers. Thus, our attention system has evolved to detect actual movement automatically and quickly," co-author Cian explained to the Atlantic. "Perception of movement within a traffic sign prepares the driver for actual movement."
"We would advocate that more dynamic traffic signs be used in contexts where faster attention and reaction times are needed,” added Krishna.
The Drowning Machine
Kyle Hill did a great video on this. The water will effectively entrap you over and over again, preventing your escape and leading to an inevitable death even worse than being killed with pineapples.
This Warning Sign On A Venomous Snake Enclosure
Recently Took A Trip To Australia. I Found This Sign On A Bathroom Door At Our Hotel
But this does beg the question, do signs with threatening auras convey the message? Marc Green, Ph.D., a human factor expert with extensive experience in perception, attention, and human factors, explained that warning signs, in general, often fail to change people's behavior.
"For many years, designers focused their concern on sensory aspects of warnings: color, shape, location, pictures vs. text, size, and so on. However, recent research suggests that effective warning design depends as much on the contents of the viewer's head as on the contents of the warning's message," he explained.
A Friend Spotted This Sign In Their Neighborhood. So Many Questions
My Hometown Really Wanted To Put Up A Historical Plaque But Struggled To Find A Noteworthy Event To Celebrate
This Is How Our Tigers See You
When people stumble upon alarming messages, they have to decide whether or not to comply. "First, the viewer has general knowledge about the world and how it works. Second, s/he has a set of beliefs and expectations based on experience with the same or similar environment, product or technology."
"Lastly, the viewer enters the situation with a goal and strategy for achieving that goal," Green continued. "The goal can be specific ('I want to arrive at my destination as soon as possible') or more diffuse ('I want to feel good about myself')." So an effective warning sign requires the designer to understand what the observer "brings to the table".
Best Sign Ever
This Sign In Finland
Sign Says... Oh Dammit
In a previous Bored Panda interview, Frank T. McAndrew, Ph.D., the Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology at Knox College, mentioned that cursed and threatening messages we encounter in our daily lives make us take notice, whether we like it or not.
"We are programmed by evolution to intently focus on unexpected or unusual things in our environment. It is essential to determine if such things pose some sort of threat to us or not, and cursed images hijack the part of our brain that is responsible for protecting us," McAndrew noted.
The same goes for unusual things in our environment. "Novelty in our environment (i.e., new or mysterious things) automatically grab our attention," he said. In an evolutionary sense, "people who paid attention to new things did a lot better over time than people who ignored them, and we are the descendants of the people who were curious."
Thanks For The Warning
This Warning Sign For Ghosts At An Old Castle In Poland
This Sign At My Job
NOT WRONG. Not at all. You see someone doing something unsafe in an industrial space, say something. A few years back I had to say "SHAWN! What you just did is the most dangerous thing you can possibly do with those chemicals." He's now married with a kid. I like to think I saved him.
According to the professor, when we can’t determine if something is good, bad, or neutral, we feel uncomfortable. "Our inability to categorize it will eat at us because we do not know how to deal with it, and this can be paralyzing if it is something that we cannot easily avoid," he explained.
"Being uncomfortable with uncertainty is a very adaptive thing, and it helps us remain vigilant in situations where we need to do so," the professor said. "People differ from each other in how comfortable they are with uncertainty, and someone who is not at all tolerant of uncertainty will be more stressed out than they should be over even moderate levels of uncertainty. I am not sure that there is too much that can be done about this, as it is a personality thing and personalities are very hard to change."
New Signs At School For Safety Against Shooters
Sign In The Front Of The Elementary School Down The Road
Deep Underground Humming Intensifies
Dark Wendy. I live in New Mexico and there was a Wendy's in Gallup and the sign looked like this sadly, they fixed it
At An Army Training Area
You Know When You’re In The Australian Outback When You See A Sign Like This
We have those signs here in the USA too. Also ones that warn you when highways are closed do to extreme weather.
Positive
Yeah, I've worked places like that before. Not too tough to get stuck in a cargo container on a busy dock.
My Mom Saw This Sign Driving Through Georgia
This Is Not A Slope Of Honour
The fact that there are so tracks on the other side of the rope is slightly worrying
The World's Most Dangerous Plant
This Sign Is So Unsettling
Wait ...was that eight blasts...or seven...or nine? Any blasts, I am running.
Found This Sign On The Edge Of Our Family Property
"Do Not Hunt, Trap, or Come into Contact with Wildlife", is good advice in general. That racoon may look cute at 50ft away BUT DO NOT HUG!
On A Trail In Bald Eagle State Forest, PA
Sign At Work
I Must Have Walked Past This Sign 100 Times And Never Noticed It
At My Local Park
The Trail At My School With A Warning Sign
Restroom Sign At A Croatian Restaurant
Found This Sign While Walking In A Local Cemetery Last Year
This Creepy Sign I Found In The Woods Depicts A Man Jumping Over Some Scary Looking Hands
Odd Sign Found In The Johnson Shut-Ins, Missouri
It's due to the flooding that occurred in December 2005. A dike broke causing a 15 foot of water to race toward the campground.