Assessing the Effects of Adding Messages to Warning Labels

Abstract

Within the context of a realistic task (setting up an office space), 84 subjects used a two-drawer file cabinet that displayed a warning label with different numbers of statements—one, three or five. In each of these labels, a target statement, indicating that the bottom drawer was to be filled before the top one to avoid tipping, appeared first in the list. One additional warning label condition had three statements with the target statement appearing last. The warning label was affixed to the file cabinet in such a way that subjects had to interact with and remove it in order to fill the file drawer(s). Results demonstrated that almost all of the subjects noticed the label, but very few read or complied with the target warning statement regardless of its location within the list (first or last) or the number of total items on the label (one, three or five).