Browsing by Author "Young, Stephen Lee"

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    Components of perceived risk for consumer products
    (1995) Young, Stephen Lee; Laughery, Kenneth R., Sr.
    Three studies were conducted to discover the underlying components of perceived risk. The first two studies examined two statistically and qualitatively different lists of rating items, and demonstrated that a principal components solution could produce similar results between them. These two solutions demonstrated that, when forming perceptions about risk, people consider the Hazardousness of potential risks, their Familiarity with the products, and the Technological nature of the risks. The third experiment extended previous findings by considering subject, as well as product, characteristics. This study demonstrated that there were three distinct subject types: Fearful, Fearless and Informed. These subject groups attended to different product information when forming perceptions of risk. In all, these studies provide a more complete understanding of the nature of risk perception.
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    Increasing the noticeability of warnings: Effects of pictorial, color, signal icon and border
    (1992) Young, Stephen Lee; Laughery, Kenneth R., Sr.
    Because of the importance of noticeability on subsequent comprehension and compliance to warnings, guidelines suggest increasing the salience or conspicuity of warnings. Surprisingly, little research has examined different methods of increasing the noticeability of warnings. The current research orthogonally manipulated four salience variables (pictorial, color, signal icon and border) to determine their effect on the salience of warnings. Subjects viewed 96 simulated alcohol labels on a computer, half with a warning and half without. Subjects indicated whether or not a warning was on the label and response latencies were recorded. The results showed that all four salience features produced significantly faster response times compared to their absence. More detailed analyses showed interactions between the four salience manipulations. These results demonstrate that salience features can enhance the noticeability of warning information. Moreover, it is clear that these salience manipulations interact with each other and that they should not be used indiscriminately.