• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SafetyRisk.net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE
    • Slogans
      • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
      • When Slogans Don’t Work
      • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
      • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
      • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
      • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
      • Safety Acronyms
      • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
      • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
      • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
      • Safety Slogans List
      • Road Safety Slogans 2023
      • How to write your own safety slogans
      • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
      • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
      • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
      • Safety Slogans for Work
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Social Psychology Of Risk
    • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Dr Long Posts
    • ALL POSTS
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no Hierarchy of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • THEMES
    • Psychosocial Safety
    • Resiliencing
    • Risk Myths
    • Safety Myths
    • Safety Culture Silences
    • Safety Culture
    • Psychological Health and Safety
    • Zero Harm
    • Due Diligence
  • Free Learning
    • Introduction to SPoR – Free
    • FREE RISK and SAFETY EBOOKS
    • FREE ebook – Guidance for the beginning OHS professional
    • Free EBook – Effective Safety Management Systems
    • Free EBook – Lessons I Have Learnt
  • Psychosocial Safety
    • What is Psychosocial Safety
    • Psychological Safety
      • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
      • Managing psychosocial hazards at work
      • Psychological Safety – has it become the next Maslow’s hammer?
      • What is Psychosocial Safety
      • Psychological Safety Slogans and Quotes
      • What is Psychological Safety?
      • Understanding Psychological Terminology
      • Psycho-Social and Socio-Psychological, What’s the Difference?
      • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
      • It’s not weird – it’s a psychological safety initiative!
You are here: Home / Ethics / An Ethical Psychology of Risk

An Ethical Psychology of Risk

September 27, 2020 by Dr Rob Long Leave a Comment

An Ethical Psychology of Risk

imageThe foundation of professionalism is Ethics. Without such a foundation one can masquerade and parade about all kinds of unethical nonsense as good. This is why safety more than any industry needs an Ethic of Risk and doesn’t have one. The poor excuse for an Ethic of Risk in the AIHS BoK Chapter 38.3 is nothing more than a deontological ethic to give permission for unethical conduct in the name of duty. There is very little in that document that helps people in the safety industry deal with the daily challenges of being ethical and modal in decisions about risk.

The last think Safety needs is the promotion of more selfishness in the name of good. We don’t need messages that tell you how to manipulate others to get what YOU want. Such messaging is anti-community, anti-justice and anti-learning. Of course, this is a common message from people who are not psychologists but people more interested in promoting business than a common good.

One of the most important messages safety people need to learn is that the medium is the message. If safety people cannot get the ethics of what they message right, they will have no chance of ever being professional (https://safetyrisk.net/not-a-professions-bootlace/). It is so funny to watch safety people promote their care for safety in a medium that undoes their purpose of safe outcomes (https://safetyrisk.net/the-medium-is-the-message/).

This is why this industry needs a ethical Ethic of Risk, not some cooked up immature stuff about ‘check your gut’ and ‘do your duty’ (https://safetyrisk.net/the-aihs-bok-and-ethics-check-your-gut/).

Safety doesn’t need a document like the AIHS BoK on Ethics that tells you that safety as a priority justifies unethical behaviour in having power over others. You can’t achieve an ethical outcome by unethical means. The end never justifies the means, that’s just utilitarianism in disguise.

One of the experts on the nature of ethical Influencing is Cialdini (Influence, Science and Practice (2009) Pearson. Boston). You can have the greatest intentions in the world, not want anyone to be harmed, desire the best for others but express them in a medium of manipulation and self and it all comes undone. Without an ethical foundation any wish for safety for others simply becomes a justification for power, coercion, distrust, deceitfulness and deception. Without respect for persons in enactment of method, it doesn’t matter what follows will be enacted unethically.

This is why the ideology of zero is unethical (https://safetyrisk.net/an-ethic-of-harm/). With the best of intentions overriding the will of others even though they may hurt themselves, doesn’t justify the harming of others psychologically for the physical outcome YOU desire. Here is this absurd mantra of ‘safety is a choice you make’ and an industry determined for you not to have a choice. The end does not justify the means, one of the first lesson one learns in a study of Ethics which of course is not any safety curriculum.

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Rob
Dr Rob Long

Dr Rob Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Dr Rob Long

Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

  • SPoR – Positive, Constructive, Practical, Rational, Visual, Verbal, Social, Relational, Person-Centric, Respectful, Ethical and Real - May 28, 2023
  • Anchoring, Framing and Priming Risk - May 26, 2023
  • What’s Your Agenda in Safety? - May 26, 2023
  • What is a Safety Reset? - May 24, 2023
  • The Myth of Neuroscience Safety - May 24, 2023
Dr Rob Long
PhD., MEd., MOH., BEd., BTh., Dip T., Dip Min., Cert IV TAA, MRMIA Rob is the founder of Human Dymensions and has extensive experience, qualifications and expertise across a range of sectors including government, education, corporate, industry and community sectors over 30 years. Rob has worked at all levels of the education and training sector including serving on various post graduate executive, post graduate supervision, post graduate course design and implementation programs.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Ethics, Robert Long, Social Psychology of Risk, Zero Harm Tagged With: AIHS BoK on Ethics, ethic of risk

Reader Interactions

Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Search and Discover More on this Site

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,523 other subscribers

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe
  • Chris. on It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe
  • Pierre Joubert on Zero Doesn’t Work, Road Fatalities Increase
  • James on We are all equal
  • Rob Long on We are all equal
  • James Parkinson on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on What Does Safety Achieve?
  • Admin on We are all equal
  • James Parkinson on We are all equal
  • Rob Long on What Does Safety Achieve?
  • Brent Charlton on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on What Does Safety Achieve?
  • Simon Cassin on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Simon Cassin on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time

RECOMMENDED READING

viral post – iso 45003 and what it cannot do

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe

The KISS of Death in Safety

Is Your Safety World Too Small?

You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time

When Safety (Zero) is Abusive

Hands Up the Best Safety Fraud!

Communicating Professionally in Risk

How NOT to be Professional in Safety

How NOT to do Anything About Culture in Building and Construction

Celebrating 60 Years of Lifeline

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Footer

VIRAL POST – The Risk Matrix Myth

Top Posts & Pages. Sad that most are so dumb but this is what safety luves

  • SPoR - Positive, Constructive, Practical, Rational, Visual, Verbal, Social, Relational, Person-Centric, Respectful, Ethical and Real
  • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • Ratio Delusions and Heinrich’s Hoax
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • Haddon’s Countermeasures – A Better Alternative to the Hierarchy of Hazard Control?

Recent Posts

  • SPoR – Positive, Constructive, Practical, Rational, Visual, Verbal, Social, Relational, Person-Centric, Respectful, Ethical and Real
  • Anchoring, Framing and Priming Risk
  • What’s Your Agenda in Safety?
  • What is a Safety Reset?
  • The Myth of Neuroscience Safety
  • When Safety Delights in ‘I Told You So’!
  • Beware the Cult of Denial
  • My Story is Better than Yours
  • Understanding Safety as a Cultural Reproductive Process
  • The Unconscious and the Soap Dispenser
  • Thinking Outside the Safety Bubble
  • Understanding Language Influencing, A Video
  • Safetie
  • You are NOT the Sum of Safety
  • Update on SPoR in India, Brazil and Europe
  • It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe
  • Safety at the Margins
  • Research Basics for Safety
  • We Need Communities and They Need Us
  • Researching Within The Safety Echo Chamber
  • Confirmation Bias, Risk and Being Offensive
  • Lemmings for Lemmings in Leadership and Risk
  • Expertise by Regurgitation and Re-Badging
  • Zero Doesn’t Work, Road Fatalities Increase
  • Can There Be Other Valid Worldviews Than Safety?
  • Evaluating Value by the Value of What You Don’t Know
  • Reality vs Theory, The Binary Divide
  • No Paradigm Shift with BBS
  • The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Is Your Safety World Too Small?
  • What Does Safety Achieve?
  • In Praise of Balance in Risk and the Threat of Extremism
  • We are all equal
  • You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • What in the (Risk & Safety) World is Imagination?
  • iCue Engagement Process
  • SPoR, Metanoia and a Podcast on Change with Nippin Anand
  • For the Monarchists of Safety
  • The Sully Effect
  • All Things Must Pass in Risk
  • Scapegoating and Safety
  • Understanding Habit, Habituation and Change
  • Don’t Mention the War
  • Safety in Design for Who by Who?
  • Beyond ‘What We Do Around Here’
  • Asking the Wrong Questions
  • When Safety (Zero) is Abusive
  • Mandala as a Method for Tackling an Ethic of Risk (a Video)
  • Safety Cosmetics
  • Visualising the EHS Role

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

Incommensurability and Discourse in Risk

By What Method?

Safety Leadership Training

The Bias of Method Design in Risk

The Illusion Of Opposites

Fooled by Certainty

Workshop – Introduction to the Social Psychology of Risk

Reflections of a ‘Doer’

A Masters Degree in ‘Tick and Flick’

Update on SPoR in India, Brazil and Europe

Fear of Being-in-the-World

Wisdom, Discernment and an Ethic of Safety

My Journey with SPoR

Living In Glass Houses

Mental Health, Risk and Safety – Part 2

No Ethic of Hope in Zero

SPoR Introductory Workshop Series April 2020

The Challenge of the Consciousness Taboo

Psychology and safety

Safety – Learning by Doing and Learning by Theory

People are not Rats–Moving Beyond Behaviour Based Safety

The Intelligence of the Emotions

I Have the Power, I’m a Safety Hero

OnLine Learning Modules with CLLR

Safety as a Knowledge Culture

Questioning Skills and Investigations

‘Man Up’ Safety

Its all About Behaviours

The Banned Objects Index – A New Development in Safety Culture

Symbols Matter

How do we mourn?

Is Safety the Empire of Non-Sense?

Why is Safety an Easy Target?

OMG – Big Words and Safety

Safety Utopia as Abuse

All Risk is Subjective

Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick

The 10 Behaviours of the Safety Sociopath

‘False Consciousness’ and Perception in Risk and Safety

It’s Always About Paperwork

More Posts from this Category

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,523 other subscribers

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

What is Psychological Safety at Work?


WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SAFETY

x
x