The notion that people consider accident risk during driving and other activities has long dominated safety research. The practical importance of risk perception and risk compensation, however, has been overrated. As an alternative formulation, behavior may be affected by action-oriented perception of affordances — we act in ways that we think will be adequate for success. Research on affordance perception has implications for understanding the causes of accidents, and for evaluating and designing warnings and other intended safety interventions.
The term warning is applied to a variety of stimuli. From a safety standpoint, the most appropriate definition of warning ties it to any information that has the potential to change behavior and prevent accidents. The results of an extensive literature review suggest that warnings are unlikely to be effective unless a series of conditions are met. The failure of many intended warnings, including most on-product warning labels, to reduce accidents reflects the difficulty of overcoming the problems inherent in their use.
A variety of potential hazards can be identified for nearly any consumer product, often more than can be practically or effectively addressed with warning labels. Published standards and guidelines for warnings do not offer a reasonable basis for limiting the number and length of warning labels. This paper proposes criteria for the use and design of warning labels based on effectiveness research, accident data, and product-associated risk.
Consumer products currently sold in the United States often come with extensive safety information, but the presentation of large amounts of such material was not always the case. We reviewed federally mandated hazard labeling as it evolved during the 20th century by documenting changes in labeling requirements for home-use products prescribed by federal statutes. Our review indicated that during the course of the 20th century, there was a dramatic change in the presence, prevalence and specificity of hazard warning requirements. In the early years, Congress concentrated on truth in labeling of contents and quality. This labeling identified hazardous agents in some products. However, as the century progressed, Congress gradually added requirements that could include descriptions of the mechanisms, consequences, and means for avoidance of such hazards. Moreover, the 1960's and especially the 1970's brought a dramatic expansion in the number and types of products required to bear hazard labels.
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