Hazard Perception of Safety Signal Words Among Educated Non-English Speakers

Signal words are essential as a part of warning signs in alerting users about the potential hazards of any technology. This study aimed to investigate the hazard perception of non-daily English speakers on three versions (English, Indonesian, and Bilingual) of international safety signal words: DANGER, WARNING, CAUTION, and NOTICE. The hazard perception was measured by asking 400 Indonesian college students to rate the hazard rating and to choose the correct meaning of the investigated signal words through an online questionnaire. Results show that DANGER, regardless of the language versions, was the signal word with the highest perceived hazard rating. It was followed by the WARNING, CAUTION, and NOTICE. The mean value of hazard rating was not significantly different among the same level of signal words in the three versions except the Indonesian version WARNING to the English and bilingual versions (p < .001). More than 50 of the participants chose the correct intended meaning of most signal words, except the Indonesian version of WARNING and all versions of NOTICE. Therefore, it can be inferred that the educated non-English speakers in the study did not have difficulty distinguishing the hazard rating of the signal words in all language versions. Most of them could also correctly determine the meaning of the signal words regardless of the language versions.