Social Behavior Research and Practice · Vol. 1, No. 1 · 2016 · pp. e1–e4 · e-ISSN 2474-8927

Pokémon Go Warnings: Will they Work?

N. Clayton Silver

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17140/sbrpoj-1-e001 · Published 2016-08-17 · Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 · © 2016 The Author(s)

Also available as PDF (figures and tables appear in the PDF).

Abstract

Over the past few months, we have witnessed a number of tragedies that could potentially have been prevented. 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.

Conclusions

Although warnings may enhance compliance as compared to no warnings,2-6 the question becomes one of adequacy. Given the Pokémon Go warnings as mentioned by Heldman,1 there are neither signal words nor icons. The warning itself should not be written in a safety color such as green given that there is a potential hazard. Moreover, the warning simply states what not to do rather than what the potential consequences may be for doing so. Perhaps constructing a warning with a signal word such as “DANGER” written in red or orange (Helvetica type) coupled with an icon within a circular border depicting someone playing Pokémon Go on their phone with a diagonal slash (from top right to bottom left) through the icon indicating a prohibited action along with the verbiage written in black on a white background (to increase legibility) would be more logical in attempting to increase salience and possibly prevent accidents. Of course, all these should be in a reasonably large font size in order to increase salience.

My belief, however, is that given these new warnings as shown in Heldman, 1 the vast majority of individuals will hit the OK button four times without reading (or processing) the quick message in order to obtain the reinforcement of playing the game. Therefore, it is equivocal to this author what the major advantages are for these types of warnings. Thus, with the type of warning proposed here, it is certainly conceivable that the majority of users might continue to hit OK many times in order to reach the actual game. However, it is just as or more likely that this warning might attract the user’s attention which would allow them to read and digest the information. This might lead to greater compliance and hopefully result in fewer dangerous situations, accidents, and mishaps.

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