The present study consisted of two experiments. In both experiments the effect of warning condition on perceived hazardousness, perceived likelihood of injury, perceived severity of injury, intended compliance, and knowledge of warning information was investigated. In the second experiment respondents were presented with a short user instruction of one product that contained a line drawing and no warnings, non-explicit warnings, or explicit warnings. Respondents had to watch a video and judge whether the actions of an actor using the product were safe or unsafe. The present study provides us with more empirical evidence of the positive effect of explicitness in warnings.
People think that products with explicit warnings are more dangerous than products without warnings.
Also, for products with explicit warnings people think that possible injury when using the product unsafely will be more severe compared to both products without warnings and with non-explicit warnings. In addition, explicit warning were preferred by the larger part of the respondents. Explicitness in warnings also has an effect on comprehension and knowledge of the warning. With explicit warnings people know better what to do or what to avoid, and they especially have substantially more knowledge about the product-related hazards and the consequences of unsafe behaviour. Therefore, people are better able to correctly judge acts as safe, and even more important, as unsafe.