Comprehension of Warnings and Resulting Attitudes

This study demonstrates that education level and warning vocabulary affect consumer reactions to warnings. Consumers who did not complete high school were not able to comprehend warnings that contained difficult vocabulary as well as warnings with simple words. They perceived products that carry warnings with simple words as safer than products labeled with warnings containing difficult words. Finally, consumers with more education were round to have more negative attitudes toward warnings with difficult words than warnings with simple words despite understanding the warnings equally well. From a public policy perspective, the ultimate purpose of warnings is to inform and protect consumers from the possible danger of using a product. Studies show that these functions often are not fulfilled, as many consumers do not attend to, read, or use warnings (Stewart and Martin 1994). This disregard is why research on warnings often focuses on ways to increase consumer responses to warning messages. McGuire (1980), for example, developed a model that investigates how characteristics of warnings, receivers, message sources, and channel types influence consumer attention, comprehension, and attitude formation toward product warnings. Similarly, in their review of research regarding warnings, Stewart and Martin (1994) discuss characteristics of consumers, products, warnings, and the context in which warnings are presented as the main factors that influence consumer attention, comprehension, and use of warnings. Given that comprehension of warnings has been found to greatly affect proper warning use (Morris et al. 1998; Stewart and Martin 1994; McGuire 1980), the first objective of this study is to further investigate consumer comprehension of warnings. In doing so, this study analyzes comprehension of warnings in two different consumer groups that vary in their level of education to see whether education may be associated with warning comprehension. Past studies indicate that consumers who do not complete high school have difficulties in fully understanding product labels that contain sophisticated language (Pyrczak 1974; Fullmer, Geiger, and Parent 1991; Pyrczak and Roth 1976). Pyrczak and Roth (1976), for example, conclude that "directions for using nonprescription drugs are too difficult for a large segment of the population to comprehend (those who have not completed high school)" and that "the difficulty of such directions should be examined and, when necessary, be revised" (267). Even though the proportion of Americans who do not hold a high school diploma has declined from 24.8 percent in 1990 to 18.3 percent in 1995, it is still considered high (U.S. Department of Commerce 1996). Other studies reveal more staggering results that indicate that more than 50 percent of U.S. adults have literacy skills below the equivalent of sixth grade reading levels (Adkins and Ozanne 1997). These statistics suggest that a significant portion of the population may not be able to fully understand information that is presented to them in warning labels. This issue has become more critical during the last two decades as warning messages have often been legally required and have become more complicated (Stewart and Martin 1994). Previous research has examined comprehension of informational labels and directions for product use. There is a need to expand the scope of research beyond product labels and directions to include the effect of education on the comprehension of warning labels. The second objective of this research is to analyze the implications of possible problems with warning comprehension by focusing on consumer attitudes toward warnings and their perceptions of product safety. Persuasion literature suggests that message comprehension affects consumer attitudes toward the message, which in turn may influence subsequent behavior (Ajzen 1988 1991). If consumers cannot fully comprehend warnings, they may develop negative attitudes toward these warnings and, in turn, may not want to pay attention to them in the future. …