Printed Warning Statements and Signal Words on Intended Carefulness

Abstract

Previous research on textual warnings has mainly focused on individual signal words, but much less research has concerned signal words in context within warnings. The current study investigated printed (visual) warnings statements that contained signal words paired with hazard and instruction statements. These statements have been previously used in research on voice (auditory) warnings by Barzegar and Wogalter (2000). The results showed that participants rated warning statements containing hazard and instruction information paired with the signal word ”DEADLY” significantly higher on intended carefulness than the same statements paired with the signal word ”DANGER.” Statements paired with a signal word were rated higher than statements without a signal word. Overall, the pattern of the ratings for the printed statements in this study concurs with that of Barzegar's and Wogalter (2000) voice warning data. Implications and suggestions to the design of effective warning statements are discussed.

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