Wogalter M S, Jarrard S W, Simpson S N
Psychology Department, North Carolina State University, Raleigh 27695.
Hum Factors. 1994 Sep;36(3):547-56. doi: 10.1177/001872089403600310.
This experiment investigated the influence of warnings, signal words, and a signal icon on perceived hazard of consumer products. Under the guise of a marketing research study, 135 people (high school students, college students, and participants from a shopping mall) rated product labels on six dimensions, including how hazardous they perceived the products to be. A total of 16 labels from actual household products were used: 9 carried the experimental conditions, and 7 were filler product labels that never carried a warning. Five conditions presented the signal words NOTE, CAUTION, WARNING, DANGER, and LETHAL together with a brief warning message. In another two conditions, a signal icon (exclamation point surrounded by a triangle) was presented together with the terms DANGER and LETHAL. In the final two conditions, one lacked a signal word but retained the warning message, and the other lacked both the warning message and the signal word. Results showed that the presence of a signal word increased perceived product hazard compared with its absence. Significant differences were noted between extreme terms (e.g., NOTE and DANGER) but not between terms usually recommended in warning design guidelines (e.g., CAUTION and WARNING). The signal icon showed no significant effect on hazard perception. Implications of the results and the value of the methodology for future warnings investigations are discussed.
本实验研究了警示语、信号词和信号图标对消费品感知危害的影响。在一项市场调研研究的幌子下，135人（高中生、大学生和来自购物中心的参与者）对产品标签的六个维度进行了评分，包括他们认为产品有多危险。总共使用了16个来自实际家用产品的标签：9个带有实验条件，7个是从未带有警示的填充产品标签。五个条件下展示了信号词“注意”“小心”“警告”“危险”和“致命”以及一条简短的警示信息。在另外两个条件下，一个信号图标（三角形包围的感叹号）与“危险”和“致命”字样一起展示。在最后两个条件下，一个没有信号词但保留了警示信息，另一个既没有警示信息也没有信号词。结果表明，与没有信号词相比，信号词的存在增加了对产品危害的感知。在极端术语（如“注意”和“危险”）之间发现了显著差异，但在警示设计指南中通常推荐的术语（如“小心”和“警告”）之间没有发现显著差异。信号图标对危害感知没有显著影响。讨论了结果的意义以及该方法对未来警示研究的价值。
