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

Safety Risk .net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE RESOURCES
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • 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
  • PSYCH. OF SAFETY & RISK
    • 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
  • Robert Long
    • 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!
  • Quotes & Slogans
    • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
    • When Slogans Don’t Work
    • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
    • BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2022
    • 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 2022
    • 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
  • Safety Culture
    • Safety Culture Silences
You are here: Home / Robert Long / Anchoring Safety to Objects

Anchoring Safety to Objects

April 9, 2018 by Dr Rob Long Leave a Comment

Anchoring Safety to Objects

imageAnchoring refers to a human bias that ‘holds’ to a view or position based upon how it was introduced and ‘sunk-cost’ associated with commitment to that position. Anchoring acts as a ‘fast and efficient’ heuristic that short cuts any need for challenge, questioning and debate and so empowers compliance. You can read more about the psychology of anchoring here: Psychological Science. Associated with ‘anchoring’ are a host of social psychological influences that create pressures to hold to a belief in the face of contrary evidence. One of the strongest influences in the dynamic of anchoring is the power of symbols.

Symbols are the go-to strategy for anchoring. When one is able to capture a story or narrative in one symbol, it becomes a short-cut heuristic for belonging and identity. We first learned this in various heuristic anchors created by the Nazis for example: the swastika and the Nazi salute. When one is able to develop symbols that attach to an idea then the symbol becomes a short-cut way to define compliance and non-compliance. Similar happens with religions and the many icons that define being in or out of a religiously initiated group.

It doesn’t matter that the symbol is not ‘true’, nor that the symbol makes so sense in itself. Symbols are not signs. Signs point to something whereas symbols indicate something way beyond themselves. Symbols are not like rational text but rather communicate to the unconscious.

In the short history of safety a range of symbols have developed that ‘anchor’ safety people to objects. When one looks at all the curriculum in safety one observes the extensive use of symbols to ‘anchor’ people to myths in symbols. Once someone has been indoctrinated with the symbology of Heinrich’s Pyramid the process has started. The nonsense narrative of ratio correlation of injury data to the definition of safety is then anchored to the symbol. Under the dynamic of ‘sunk cost’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost) such mythology is now ‘locked in’ as truth. Myths and symbols are the same thing. Myths are anchored in symbols and symbols are anchored in myths. Once the myth and symbol is in place, it doesn’t matter that evidence proves it is nonsense, the symbol has already been anchored through sunk cost to the unconscious in a religious way so that rejection of the symbol becomes an identification of non-compliance.

When one looks through the common texts that are used to teach risk and safety, they are infused with nonsense symbols that anchor people to myths in safety that are simply not true. There is no correlation between injury data and the definition of safety. Unfortunately when Heinrich is used as the reference point, that pyramid symbol becomes the new truth. Unless curriculum reform includes the eradication of nonsense symbols, there is little chance that there will ever be any reform in safety ideology (https://safetyrisk.net/isnt-it-time-we-reformed-the-whs-curriculum/ ). STEM and regulation cannot know about semiotics nor about how semiotics informs the collective unconscious.

If one wants to indoctrinate and propagate safety as reductionism then just anchor to the swiss cheese. Now locked in as the go-to symbol for causality, this little myth has done more damage to open minded thinking about understanding emergence and events than any other symbol on the safety market.

Shared symbols create quick assurance of compliance without the need to process the long narrative associated with the story of the symbol. Symbolism and myth aid compliance through mindlessness. If one identifies with the symbol then one is ‘in’ if not, one is ‘out’. Symbols and myths assist in quashing critical questioning and thinking. This is why the many models in safety such a curves and triangles are so dangerous because they anchor the industry to objects not subjects. If you goal is zero then you anchor a population to process and counting.

Many people don’t understand that Zero is both an ideology, symbol and myth and as such communicates to the unconscious in ways that drive ‘sunk cost’ in objects, counting and numerics. The symbology of zero is to dehumanise all that falls before it. Zero is now a symbol of compliance to traditional safety orthodoxy. Even the peak SIA will not disown this symbology (https://safetyrisk.net/sia-has-a-bet-each-way-on-zero/) such is the power of its religious symbology. Most believe that zero is neutral and harmless, as mis-educated by an immature WHS curriculum overseen by reformers indoctrinated by STEM-only propaganda.

Symbols are embodied in mantras, signs, icons, shapes, flags, gestures, badges and logos. No wonder so much of safety has been seduced to identify with the iconography of objects (https://safetyrisk.net/the-iconography-of-safety/ ). Regardless of whet rhetoric is proposed in safety about care and relationships, when the narrative is anchored to a symbolic object, the deed is done.

I conducted a safety culture audit recently for an organisation and asked all the executives what symbols they associate with risk and safety, only 3% recalled a symbol that anchored to people, relationships, communication and helping.

  • 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)

  • Ritual Performance and Risk - June 24, 2022
  • Asking Better Questions in Risk - June 21, 2022
  • The Toxic Language of ‘Performance’ and Risk - June 17, 2022
  • The Art of Active Listening in Risk - June 12, 2022
  • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety - June 10, 2022
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: Robert Long, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: anchoring, STEM, sunk cost

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

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 7,433 other subscribers

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

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on Culture Silences in Safety – Socialitie
  • Joe Zinobile on Culture Silences in Safety – Socialitie
  • HASSAN MOHAMMED on Free Online Safety Training Courses
  • Rob Long on Safety Climate / Safety Leadership Survey
  • Ann on Safety Climate / Safety Leadership Survey
  • Rob on Near Miss or Near Hit
  • Robert Long on The Convenience of Complacency
  • patricia on Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
  • William McGinty on The Convenience of Complacency
  • Patrick on Free Health and Safety Manual Template

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Recent Posts

  • Ritual Performance and Risk
  • Asking Better Questions in Risk
  • The Toxic Language of ‘Performance’ and Risk
  • OHS Compliance Puts Lives in Danger
  • Talking About Teams
  • The Art of Active Listening in Risk
  • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
  • You Market What You Believe in Safety
  • The Noise of Safety Leadership
  • That’s Not a Knife, That’s a Knife

What is Psychological Safety at Work?

Footer

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 7,433 other subscribers

AUTHORS

  • Alan Quilley
    • Heinrich–Industrial Accident Prevention
    • The Problem With ZERO Goals and Results
  • Bernard Corden
    • After the goldrush
    • The Internationale
  • Bill Sims
    • Employee Engagement: Chocolate, Vanilla, or Strawberry?
    • Injury Hiding-How do you stop it?
  • Craig Clancy
    • Task Based vs Activity Based Safe Work Method Statements
    • Safety And Tender Submissions
  • Daniel Kirk
    • It’s easy being wise after the event.
    • A Positive Safety Story
  • Dave Whitefield
    • Safety is about…
    • Safety and Compliance
  • Dennis Millard
    • Are You Risk Intelligent?
    • Honey they get me! They get me at work!
  • Drewie
    • Downturn Doin’ Your Head In? Let’s Chat….
    • How was your break?
  • Gabrielle Carlton
    • All Care and No Care!
    • You Are Not Alone!
  • George Robotham
    • How to Give an Unforgettable Safety Presentation
    • How To Write a Safety Report
  • Goran Prvulovic
    • Safety Manager – an Ultimate Scapegoat
    • HSE Performance – Back to Basics
  • James Ellis
    • Psychological Core Stability for Wellbeing in Workers Comp
    • In search of plan B in workers’ recovery
  • James Parkinson
    • To laugh or not to laugh
    • People and Safety
  • John Toomey
    • In it for The Long Haul – Making the most of the FIFO Lifestyle
    • Who is Responsible for This?
  • Karl Cameron
    • Abby Normal Safety
    • The Right Thing
  • Ken Roberts
    • Safety Legislation Is Our Biggest Accident?
    • HSE Trip Down Memory Lane
  • Mark Perrett
    • Psychology of Persuasion: Top 5 influencing skills for getting what you want
  • Mark Taylor
    • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
    • Enculturing Safety
  • Max Geyer
    • WHS Legislation is NOT about Safety it’s about Culture
    • Due Diligence Is Not Just Ticking Boxes!
  • Matt Thorne
    • Safety Culture–Hudson’s Model
    • Culture – Edgar Schein
  • Peter Ribbe
    • Is there “Common Sense” in safety?
    • Who wants to be a safety professional?
  • Phil LaDuke
    • Professional Conferences Are A Sleazy Con
    • Hey Idiots, You’re Worried About the Wrong Things
  • Admin
    • OHS Compliance Puts Lives in Danger
    • Talking About Teams
  • Dr Rob Long
    • Ritual Performance and Risk
    • Asking Better Questions in Risk
  • Rob Sams
    • The Learning (and unlearning) that Revealed my Vocation
    • I’m just not that into safety anymore
  • Barry Spud
    • Things To Consider When Developing And Designing Your Company SWMS
    • Bad Safety Photos
  • Sheri Suckling
    • How Can I Get the Boss to Listen?
  • Simon Cassin
    • Safety values, ideas, behaviours and clothes
  • Safety Nerd
    • The Block isn’t portraying safety as it should be
    • Toolbox Talk Show–PPE
  • Wynand Serfontein
    • Why The Problem With Learning Is Unlearning
    • I DON’T KNOW
  • Zoe Koskinas
    • Why is fallibility so challenging in the workplace?

Top Posts & Pages

  • BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2022
  • Free Safety Moments Examples, Tips and Resources
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Road Safety Slogans 2022
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
  • Ritual Performance and Risk
  • IDEAS FOR SAFETY TOOL BOX TALKS, HARD HAT CHATS and SAFETY MOMENTS
  • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity

Most commented on

Forecasting Safety

The Banned Objects Index – A New Development in Safety Culture

Dumbs for Safety

The Real Barriers to Safety

Safety as Faith Healing

Who Said We Don’t Need Systems?

Why Safety Controls Don’t Always Work

How to use signs, symbols and text effectively in communicating about risk

Safety Should NOT Be About Safety

How Do We Know?

FEATURED POSTS

The Attraction of Simple and Easy in Safety

It’s a Great Goal, it Just Doesn’t Work

Biases and Perceptions in Safety

Shopping for Safety

Safety Doesn’t Need Military Language

Why Personify Safety?

Failure Must be an Option

People Skills Are Not Soft Skills

The Safety Worldview and the Worldview of Safety, Testing Due Diligence

Free Safety and Risk Lunch n Learn

The Conundrum in Discerning Risk

Face-to-Face Safety

Europe – International Workshop Social Psychology of Risk Introduction

Making Language in Safety Meaningful

What Does SPoR Do?

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

Second Group Completes Graduate Certificate in Psychology of Risk

The Social Politics of Safety

Humanising Leadership in Risk, Shifting the Focus from Objects to Persons

Is there “Common Sense” in safety?

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 7,433 other subscribers

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

 

How To Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer

 

 

How to Make your own Covid-19 Face Mask

 

Covid-19 Returning To Work Safety, Transitioning, Start Up And Re Entry Plans

 

How’s the Hot Desking Going Covid?

imageOne of the benefits of the Covid-19 epidemic is a total rethink about how we live and work (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-28/coronavirus-could-reshape-how-australians-work-forever/12097124 ).

Expertise by Regurgitation and Re-Badging

One of the fascinating things about the Coronavirus pandemic is watching Safety morph into epidemiology expertise. I would like a dollar for every flyer, presentation, podcast, powerpoint, checklist template, toolbox talk and poster set that had jumped into my inbox… Read the rest

The Stress of Stasis

One of the challenging things about the Coronavirus crisis is stasis. For those without work and confined to home, for those in self-isolation, it’s like life is frozen in time. ‘Stay at home’ is the mantra. The trouble is, in… Read the rest