Risk perceptions

One reason why people fail to pay sufficient attention to what they are doing or choose to either not read a procedure or to knowingly violate it is because their perception of the risk is less than reality (i.e. they think they are safer than they really are). Equally there are many high profile cases where people perceive the risk of something to be higher than is probably is (e.g. nuclear power, travelling by train in the days after an accident).

The reality is that people are pretty poor at evaluating risks. Lack of knowledge clearly has an influence, but there are greater powers at work. Complacency is one of these, and is a natural reaction when people become familiar with a hazard so that they can almost forget it exists. Also, people seem to make an automatic evaluation of risks vs. benefits, and will instinctively accept a risk where they feel the benefit is worthwhile. Road travel is a good example. People are happy to continue this activity even though an average of 10 people die per day on UK roads, but would not accept anything like this risk from any work setting.

The challenge for health and safety is to get people having a realistic perception of risks. We want to understand there are reasons for controls, but we do not want them to become overly risk averse as this can stifle the business and stops people actually engaging with the risk management process. Getting this level of understanding is not easy, and will require continuous attention. As with many things, communication is the key and will involve finding ways informing people about risks in a way they will understand.