Pesticide labels do not effectively communicate toxicity risks

Abstract

We show consumers inadvertently misperceive the risk associated with over-the-counter pesticides under the current labeling policy. Through an incentivized framed field experiment with eye tracking, we evaluate the effectiveness of existing pesticide labels that convey risk using signal words, finding they are ineffective in communicating toxicity information. We introduce two novel label display formats using traffic light colors and a skull intensity symbol and show that the new pictorial labels perform better than the existing signal word label in terms of consumers identifying the appropriate level of toxicity. Specifically, consumers’ correct assessment of toxicity level dramatically improves from 56% under the existing signal word label to 88% under the traffic light and 87% under the skull intensity symbol labels. We also find that participants are more likely to choose less toxic alternatives under the new labels, suggesting the current labeling system may have unintended adverse effects to human health.