Warning signs and labels have two purposes: to inform people of hazardous situations and to change peoples' behavior. The research literature on warning signs and labels has been reviewed, using an information processing model, by Wogalter and Laughery (1996). Their model consists of four sequential stages: attention, comprehension, attitudes, and beliefs. If a person notices a warning, understands what it is trying to tell them, believes it is necessary, and is motivated to follow its instructions, then they will comply with it.

Research on the first stage of the model, attention, has shown that novelty, size, illumination, contrast and location are all factors that affect whether or not a warning sign gets noticed. Multimodal warnings (such as a visual and audio warning together) are effective in situations where people may already have their attention focused on one modality. Interactive warnings, personalized warnings, and occasionally changing the features of a warning sign are all methods of combatting habituation to warning signs.

If a warning sign is not comprehended, it will not be followed. Warning signs should be written so that they can be understood by the least-skilled people who they may affect. Making a warning more specific may help comprehension; for example, "may be hazardous to your health" may be better comprehended when stated as "has been shown to cause fatal respiratory infections." Pictures are useful for quickly communicating information and reaching illiterate groups (such as young children); however, they are not very explicit and may be misunderstood.

Beliefs and attitudes also affect compliance. Familiarity lessens the likelihood that warning signs will be attended to; unfamiliarity causes a person to spend more time looking at and reading warning signs, as well as a higher rate of compliance. This effect is due to beliefs about an environment or object's safety that is formed during prior exposure and experience with the workplace or object. If a person does not think that a situation is dangerous, they are not likely to bother looking for or reading a warning sign.

The final stage of the model is motivation. An important factor affecting motivation is the cost of compliance. If a person perceives that the effort expended in following the warning outweighs the risks involved in not complying , then they may choose not to comply. Workers can be motivated to follow warnings if the potential cost of not complying is made to appear greater; this can be achieved by providing explicit explanations of what may occur if the warnings are not heeded (Godfrey et al, 1983; Wogalter et al, 1991; Wogalter, Brems, and Martin, 1993; Young, Wogalter, and Brelsford, 1992). Social factors, such as whether or not coworkers comply with warnings also affects compliance (Wogalter, Allison, and McKenna, 1989).

References
Godfrey, S.S., Allender, L., Laughery, K.R., & Smith, V.L. (1983). Warning messages: Will consumers bother to look? In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 27th Annual Meeting. Human Factors Society, Santa Monica, CA.

Wogalter, M.S., Allison, S.T., and McKenna, N.A. (1989). Effects of cost and social influence on warning compliance. Human Factors, 31, 133-140.

Wogalter, M.S., Brelsford, J.W., Desaulniers, D.R., & Laughery, K.R. (1991). Consumer product warnings: The role of hazard perception. Journal of Safety Research, 22, 71-82.

Wogalter, M.S., Brems, D.J., & Martin, E.G. (1993). Risk perception of common consumer products: Judgment of accident frequency and precautionary intent. Journal of Safety Research, 24, 97-106.

Wogalter, M.S., & Laughery, K.R. (1996). WARNING! sign and label effectiveness. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 5, 33-37.

Young, S.L., Wogalter, M.S., & Brelsford, J.W. (1992). Relative contribution of likelihood and severity of injury to risk perception. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 36th Annual Meeting. Human Factors Society, Santa Monica, CA.

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