Allocation of Responsibility for Product Safety: Warning and Severity of Injury Effects

Abstract

A study explored how injury severity and the presence of warnings influence people's allocation of responsibility for safety during consumer product use. Eighty-eight subjects were shown ten scenarios, one for each of ten products, describing an accident and injury. The subjects assigned responsibility to the manufacturer, the retailer and the consumer (user). Two variables were manipulated: injury severity and the presence or absence of a warning. The mean responsibility assigned to consumers was 85% and 41% with and without warnings, respectively. The mean allocations to manufacturers was 11% and 49% with and without warnings. The warning effect was less, however, when hazards were more obvious, with consumers generally assigned more responsibility when hazards were obvious. Injury severity was a factor only when warnings were present; manufacturers were assigned greater responsibility for severe injury accidents than for less severe injuries. These results have implications for policies about the need for warnings and for understanding or predicting outcomes of jury decisions in product liability litigation.