We examine the evidence offered for triggered star formation against the backdrop provided by recent numerical simulations of feedback from massive stars at or below giant molecular cloud sizescales .
We compile a catalogue of sixty–seven observational papers , mostly published over the last decade , and examine the signposts most commonly used to infer the presence of triggered star formation .
We then determine how well these signposts perform in a recent suite of hydrodynamic simulations of star formation including feedback from O–type stars performed by Dale et al ( 2012a , b , 2013a , b , 2014 ) .
We find that none of the observational markers improve the chances of correctly identifying a given star as triggered by more than factors of two at most .
This limits the fidelity of these techniques in interpreting star formation histories .
We therefore urge caution in interpreting observations of star formation near feedback–driven structures in terms of triggering .