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A comment on Biohazard: Iconic Symbol Designed to Be “Memorable but Meaningless”. Parent comment

Re:Biohazard: Iconic Symbol Designed to Be “Memorable but Me... by jdietrich on Monday June 06, 2016 @09:14PM (#11851746)
I can't tell if it's just cultural association, but the biohazard symbol looks viscerally evil to me. It suggests the barbs of a stinging insect or the mouth parts of a parasitic worm. I feel an instinctive aversion to it, akin to disgust or horror.

The ionising radiation symbol doesn't have anything like the same gut impact; aside from the yellow and black colour scheme, it looks quite neutral and unthreatening.

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Re:Biohazard: Iconic Symbol Designed to Be “Memorable but Me... by CamperBob2 on Monday June 06, 2016 @10:15PM (#11851961)
The ionising radiation symbol doesn't have anything like the same gut impact; aside from the yellow and black colour scheme, it looks quite neutral and unthreatening.

They seem to have fixed that nicely:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Lo...

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Re:Biohazard: Iconic Symbol Designed to Be “Memorable but Me... by peteretep on Monday June 06, 2016 @10:18PM (#11851967)
That's the symbol for "The extractor fan in this room is haunted"
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Re:Biohazard: Iconic Symbol Designed to Be “Memorable but Me... by ddt_Osprey on Monday June 06, 2016 @10:41PM (#11852038)
I thought it meant "turn up the speakers and head over to the mosh pit or die."
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Re:Biohazard: Iconic Symbol Designed to Be “Memorable but Me... by peteretep on Monday June 06, 2016 @10:17PM (#11851966)
I agree with that, but struggle to articulate why it looks evil. Does it look like decay? Like a weapon? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Re:Biohazard: Iconic Symbol Designed to Be “Memorable but Me... by TillE on Monday June 06, 2016 @10:57PM (#11852081)
As mentioned, it looks vaguely like some kind of horrible insect or a spider or something. Probably close enough to itch at your subconscious.
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Re:Biohazard: Iconic Symbol Designed to Be “Memorable but Me... by 2bitencryption on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @01:20AM (#11852551)
I agree. Trychtophobia (spelling) is definitely a real thing, so I don't think it's out of question. It seems that (in some people at least) certain patterns or images can have very, uh, "deterring" properties, I guess.

The biohazard symbol looks flat out dangerous to me. While the radiation trifoil scares me because I've learned what it means, the biohazard symbol is something more instinctual to me. It says "someone who knows more than you do wanted to freak you out by putting this here, so stay away!"

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Re:Biohazard: Iconic Symbol Designed to Be “Memorable but Me... by peteretep on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @01:40AM (#11852606)
I wonder if it's because it looks like three sets of pincers. I feel like the effect would be muted if the outer circles were consistent width and didn't end in points.
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Re:Biohazard: Iconic Symbol Designed to Be “Memorable but Me... by werthersOrigin on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @09:04AM (#11854162)
Growing up, I had superimposed the belief that the central circle was supposed to represent an original infected cell, and then, I thought the sharp hooks were supposed to be forming three new infected cells violently emerging from the original infected host, destroying the host in the process.

The imagery seemed to make sense to me, since viruses load up in a cell, and force the cell to churn out copies until it explodes.

I figured the knifey looking sharp hooks were just stylization, to communicate danger and get the point across. (see what I did there?)

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Re:Biohazard: Iconic Symbol Designed to Be “Memorable but Me... by lsaferite on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @01:45AM (#11852621)
Apparently even babies have an innate fear of spiders (and snakes)(according to at least one study).

http://www.livescience.com/2348-fear-snakes.html

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Re:Biohazard: Iconic Symbol Designed to Be “Memorable but Me... by sevensor on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @09:31AM (#11854362)
But rotate it 60 degrees, and it looks like a happy monkey face. At least to me.
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