The present research examined a set of fire warning statements that could be used to facilitate evacuationof a multi-story building by manipulating the statements' wording and order. Participants (N = 105)evaluated how acceptable each of 13 statements would be in a fire emergency. Manipulated in thestatements were two types of components: (a) 3 levels of egress immediacy: "exit now," "exitimmediately," or none, and (b) 3 levels of egress directives: "use stairs," "do not use elevator," or none.Results showed that participants rated statements containing egress-immediacy and egress-directivecomponents higher than statements without those components. There were no significant differencesbetween the two egress immediacy components or between the two egress directives. An additionalcomponent order manipulation showed no effects. Implications and suggestions for future research onwarning statement composition are discussed.
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