Pokémon Go Warnings: Will they Work?
These include the alligator attack on a 2-year old boy at Disney and the shooting of Harambe the Gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo when a child made his way into the exhibit area. Perhaps, better and more salient warning signs would have made a difference. Recently, there has been a game sweeping the nation called Pokémon Go.
Colors connote a certain type of hazard. For example, if we examine the color of traffic lights, red indicates stop, yellow means approach with caution, and green connotes proceed safely. Similarly, Westinghouse paired the signal words DANGER, WARNING, and CAUTION with the colors red, orange, and yellow, respectively. The ANSI Z535.11 provided a similar standard but also added
blue and green to convey safety information and safe conditions, respectively. The International Organization for Standards also published similar guidelines, but with subtle differences compared to the ANSI Z535.1 standards. Therefore, the standards provide a hierarchy of connoted hazard level with the respective color.
Indeed, in terms of perceived hazard, Braun and Silver found that red and orange had a higher perceived hazard level than black, green, or blue. Although red was significantly higher than orange, there was no statistically significant difference among black, green, or blue with regard to perceived hazard level. There has been a bit of equivocal literature concerning black and red with
regard to perceived hazard level.
With regard to behavioral compliance, Wogalter et al demonstrated that a chromatic warning led to greater behavioral compliance of a non-potable drinking water fountain sign than an achromatic one. Likewise, Wogalter et al found that red and yellow fonts led to fewer errors for connecting car battery jumper cables than an achromatic warning.
Soc Behav Res Pract Open J. 2016; 1(1): e1-e4. doi: 10.17140/ SBRPOJ-1-e001
