Behavioral compliance to personalized warning signs and the role of perceived relevance

Recent research has shown that compliance to a posted warning sign is much lowerthan the same warning located within a set of task instructions, even when the sign is highly visible. One possible reason for this rroding is that participants' believe the sign to be less relevant to the task and to themselves than the within-instructions warning. One purpose of the present research was to examine whether a personalized sign (with the participant's name) is more effectivethan a more conventional impersonal sign (with the signal word eAtmON). A second purpose was to examine the influence of a dynamic display compared to a static display. A sign composed of programmable light-emitting diodes (LEOs) presented the warningmessage using specialeffects (apparentmotion) or it was displayed continuously. A third purpose was to examine whether various sign placements in a cluttered laboratory environmentinfluences compliance. The wearing of protective equipmentby participantsas directedby the warning was the measure of behavioral compliance in a chemistry laboratory task. More participants wore the protective equipment when a warning was present than when it was absent. The personalized sign increased compliance comparedto the impersonalsign. No effect of dynamic presentationwas found, and the only effect among sign placements was found for perceivedaccuracy. The effect of personalizationis explained in terms of the special alerting feature of one's own name and increasedperceivedrelevancethat results when the messageis directed to them. Implications for flexible control of personalized warning messagesusing availabletechnologyare discussed.