RISK LITERACY PREDICTS AIRPLANE SAFETY BRIEFING CARD COMPREHENSION

Abstract

Airplane safety briefing cards are a legally required method of communicating safety information to passengers, yet research suggests that comprehension of these materials remains below acceptable standards. This study sought to replicate and extend previous comprehension testing of airplane safety briefing cards to test whether there were individual differences beyond domain specific knowledge that could be used to predict who would be likely to misunderstand these safety communications. The results were clear; airplane safety briefing card comprehension remained below acceptable standards. Most importantly, risk literacy, as measured by statistical numeracy, was found to be a better predictor of comprehension than cabin safety knowledge, accounting for substantially more variance in comprehension scores. No other individual difference measure was a significant predictor of briefing card comprehension scores. To the extent these findings generalize, there are vulnerabilities in briefing card comprehension, and those vulnerabilities can be predicted and ameliorated.