Product warnings and the involuntary capture of attention

Abstract

In both published papers and in guidelines of regulatory agencies and voluntary standards, examples can be found where the assumption is made that what will capture attention is that which is salient or conspicuous, and that these qualities are both necessary and sufficient to capture attention. A review of the published, peer-reviewed literature on attention capture, however, invites the conclusion that there are very few features of an object that will draw attention to themselves without or against the observer’s intentions. The ability of warnings to draw attention to themselves involuntarily is discussed within the context of the extant attention capture literature.