Comparison of ANSI and ISO Standard Formats on People's Response to Product Warnings

Abstract

Warning labels can be formatted in a variety of ways. ANSI Z535.4 and ISO 3864-2 are two voluntary standards that provide guidance on label format. Two studies examined people's perception of (Study 1) and behavior in response to (Study 2) warning labels formatted in the following ways: (1) Non-standard format, (2) ANSI-format, (3) ISO-format, and (4) a combination of the ANSI- and ISO-format. The results of Study 1 show that lay people think that warning format will significantly influence people's behavior in terms of noticing and complying with warnings. However, the results of Study 2 showed that people's actual behavioral compliance is not significantly influenced by the standard warning formats compared to the Non-standard condition. Subjects did report reading more of the Non-standard label than the other labels. The results of these studies are consistent with previous findings in the warning literature. Implications of these results are discussed.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

ANSI Z535.4. (2002). Product Safety Signs and Labels. New York: American National Standards Institute.

Cox

E.P.

III Wogalter

M.S.

Stokes

S.L.

Murff

Tipton E.J.

(1997). Do product warnings increase safe behavior? A meta-analysis. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 16, 195–204.

DeJoy

D.M.

(1989). Consumer product warnings: Review and analysis of effectiveness research. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 33rd Annual Meeting, 936–940.

Frantz

J.P.

Rhoades

T.P.

(1993). A task-analytic approach to the temporal and spatial placement of product warnings. Human Factors, 35, 719–730.

Frantz

J.P.

Rhoades

T.P.

Young

S.L.

Schiller

J.A.

(2000). Assessing the effects of adding messages to warning labels. In Proceedings of the IEA 2000/HFES 2000 Congress, 818–821.

Frantz

J.P.

Young

S.L.

Rhoades

T.P.

Wisniewski

E.C.

(2005). Predicted versus actual response to warning signs and labels: Examining the role of ANSI Z535 features. In Proceedings of the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society 49th Annual Meeting, 1785–1789.

Friedmann

(1988). The effect of adding symbols to written warning labels on user behavior and recall. Human Factors, 30, 507–515.

Gomer

F.E.

(1986). Evaluating the effectiveness of warnings under prevailing working conditions. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 30th Annual Meeting, 712–715.

Hatem

A.T.

(1993). The Effect of Performance Level on Warning Compliance. Unpublished master's thesis, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.

10.

ISO 3864-2. (2004). Graphical symbols—Safety colours and safety signs—Part 2: Design principles for product safety labels. Geneva: International Organization for Standardization.

11.

Laughery

K.R.

Page

D.L.

Laughery

B.R.

Wogalter

M.S.

Kalsher

M.J.

Leonard

S.D.

(2002). Guidelines for warning design: Do they matter? In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 46th Annual Meeting, 1708–1712.

12.

Otsubo

S.M.

(1988). A behavioral study of warning labels for consumer products: Perceived danger and use of pictographs. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 32nd Annual Meeting, 536–540.

13.

Smith-Jackson

Durak

. (2000). Posted warnings, compliance, and behavioral intent. In Proceedings of the IEA 2000/HFES 2000 Congress, 4, 115–118.

14.

Strawbridge

J.A.

(1986). The influence of position, highlighting, and imbedding on warning effectiveness. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 30th Annual Meeting, 716–720.

15.

Young

S.L.

Frantz

J.P.

Rhoades

T.P.

Darnell

K.R.

(2002). Does compliance with ANSI Z535 increase compliance with warnings? Professional Safety, September, 18–23.

16.

Young

S.L.

Frantz

J.P.

Rhoades

T.P.

Hall

S.M.

(2006). Development and objectives of the ANSI Z535 series of standards for safety signs and colors: A historical perspective. In. Wogalter

M.S.

(Ed.), Handbook of warnings (pp. 445–454). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

17.

Young

S.L.

Shah

R.J.

Frantz

J.P.

Rhoades

T.P.

(2004). Exploring the influence of message length, location, repeated exposure and user evaluation on response to warnings and instructions. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 48th Annual Meeting, 2055–2059.

18.

Zeitlin

L.R.

(1994). Failure to follow safety instructions: Faulty communication or risky decisions? Human Factors, 36, 172–181.