Hazard level perceptions of current and proposed warning sign and label panels

Michael S. Wogalter North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695-7801 Marilyn E. Spunar Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY 12180-3590 A growing number of studies have investigated factors associated with various measures of warning effectiveness, including noticeability, comprehension, and most importantly, compliance. Some research has begun to examine the components comprising signs and labels (e.g., signal words, color). However, there has been virtually no research on people's perceptions of signllabelconfigurations that are currently found on warnings. The present study evaluates the warning styles that are specified in ANSI (1991) Z535.2 and Z535.4 standards, as well as a set of proposed styles. The results confirmed several specifications in current standards (e.g., the signal word DANGER was perceived as more hazardous than the other currently-specified signal words), whereas other specifications were not fully conflIIIled (e.g., the WARNING configuration as indicating higher hazard than the CAUTION configuration). Some newly developed warning styles (e.g., using the signal word DEADLY and a skull icon) show promise for better signaling highly hazardous conditions.