How can people be persuaded to stop at stop signs?

Is a hefty fine the solution? I recently took a one day defensive driving course in which there was a long discussion on stopping at stop signs. Evidently people don’t realize that they are not coming to a full stop or just don’t care when they they roll on through stop signs. The only time people stop at stop signs is when there are pedestrians in the cross walk or there are on coming traffic (or they see a cop). My statement the the defensive driving instructor was “You are asking us to do what almost all other drivers including cops don’t do”.
I know why people don’t stop at stop signs. Coming to a complete stop at a stop sign (when there are no pedestrians of on coming traffic) is painful in that it seems like your world grinds to a dead halt while the rest of the world rushes ahead of you.
Perhaps the old stop sign is a relic of the past and should be replaced with the yield sign?