RESEARCH NOTE, The Impact of Safety Warnings on Perception and Memory

Little research has been done concerning consumer product safety warnings. This study, using 91 undergraduates, attempts to alleviate this void through an experiment in which the design and presence of a safety warning are systematically varied. The presence of a warning is found to have a positive impact on an individual's perception of the effectiveness and safety of a brand. The use of a pictogram, the strength of a signal word, and the use of capital letters in a safety warning are found to have little effect on perception of a brand or on memory of safety information.