No abstract

The purpose of the present work was to identify some of the factors that influence effectiveness of warnings. Two laboratory experiments designed to examine behavioral effectiveness indicated that a warning placed before procedural instructions is more likely to lead to compliance than a warning that follows instructions. Two rating experiments indicated that for greatest perceived effectiveness, environmental warnings generally require a signal word plus hazard, consequence, and instruction statements. A third rating experiment suggested that informative, nonredundant statements add to a warning's perceived effectiveness. Several field demonstration studies showed that cost of compliance and salience influence behavioral effectiveness. Implications and applications to warning design are discussed.

Past research has shown that simply imagining oneself deciding to perform or refusing to perform a target behavior produces corresponding changes in expectations about oneself, whereas imagining someone else has no impact on expectations about oneself (Anderson, 1983b). The present experiment further examined this specificity effect and the proposed underlying mechanism. It was hypothesized that imagining oneself in a behavioral script would influence expectations about oneself, but not expectations about another person, and that imagining another person in a behavioral script would influence expectations about that person's behavior, but not expectations about one's own behavior. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that previously imagined scripts would be easier to imagine (i.e., more available), and that ease of imagination would be correlated with behavioral expectations. All hypotheses were supported. The role of imagined scripts in a variety of decision domains is discussed. We thank Morgan Slusher, Constantine Sedikides, Lynn Arnoult, and Daniel M. Wegner for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article, and Scott Morris for his assistance in collecting these data. Requests for reprints should be sent to Craig A

One way to encourage the safe use of potentially hazardous household products is to provide a warning message on the label. But will the consumer bother to look at the message? In Experiment 1 subjects were asked to imagine themselves purchasing a number of household products. They then rated the products on skin-contact hazard, inhalation hazard, swallowing hazard and overall hazard. They also rated the likelihood that they would look for a warning and how familiar they were with the product. In Experiment 2 more detailed information about familiarity with products was collected along with hazard ratings. Together the results of the two experiments indicate that subjects do discriminate products on overall hazard. They also rate skin contact hazard lowest, inhalation hazard intermediate and swallowing hazard highest. The more hazardous they perceive a product, the more likely they will look for a warning. Further, females are more likely to look for warnings than males. Also, perceived hazard varies inversely with familiarity. The principal conclusion is that factors such as perceived hazard, familiarity and sex influence the consumer's decision to look for a warning message on the labels of potentially hazardous household products.

Although toxic shock syndrome (TSS) and its connection to tampon use has been highly publicized, the extent of the average consumer's knowledge of the specific hazards involved is questionable. Women become familiar with this product and therefore may underrate its hazards and fail to notice warnings. A survey was conducted to determine women's awareness of the hazards of tampon use, their awareness of warnings about TSS, and their knowledge of the symptoms of TSS. They were not so likely to notice warnings on or in the tampon packages when they switched products as they were earlier. They were not well informed as to the symptoms of TSS, and many did not know that more absorbent tampons are more hazardous. The relationship of these results to the familiarity effect is discussed. Also, implementation by manufacturers of effective warnings on these products in order to enable women to use them safely is discussed and recommended.