Effect of Location and Procedural Explicitness on User Processing of and Compliance with Product Warnings

Abstract

Eighty subjects used a water-repellent sealer with one of four labels in an experiment to determine the effect of precaution location relative to usage instructions and the effect of procedural explicitness of precautions on the attention to and compliance with on-product warnings and instructions. Contrary to current/recommended practice, the inclusion of precautions in the directions for use substantially increased label effectiveness, as did increasing precaution explicitness. Compared with the exemplar current label, procedurally explicit precautions included in the directions substantially increased reading rates from 4% to 78% and compliance rates from 10% to 65%. This experiment also produced a number of findings regarding user processing of product information. This research is not supportive of labeling guidelines and regulations calling for precautions to be separated from usage information.