• 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 / Risk Aversion / Banning Head Protection is Safer

Banning Head Protection is Safer

April 5, 2017 by Admin 6 Comments

Banning Head Protection is Safer

imageSome may be aware that the National Boxing Championships are being conducted in Adelaide in April 2017. This is the first championship where protective headgear has been banned. This is in line with a global ban on protective headgear because it doesn’t protect heads (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2293803/Headgear-boxers-banned-bid-REDUCE-head-injuries.html).

New rules by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) has banned head gear because it causes harm. The ban applies from June 2017 in a bid to reduce head injuries. It turns out that protective gear is not protective, because of how it affects the thinking of those participating in the sport. Headgear changes the mindset of participants and research has shown that a lack of headgear actually reduces the risk of concussion. The AIBA announcement comes after new research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found there was ‘no good evidence that mouthguards and helmets ward off concussion’.

The naïve idea that ‘all protection protects’ totally ignores the social psychology of risk. Unless trade-offs, by-products and side-effects are considered then it will simply be ‘dumb down’ safety as usual. Hey, but dumb down is in vogue.

Dumb down drives the thinking of NSW Transport Toward Zero Campaign (http://www.towardszero.nsw.gov.au/ ). Don’t you just love the binary mindlessness of ‘what is an acceptable number of road fatalities?’ What a crazy question, like asking someone: are you a sexual predator? Or, are you a terrorist? What is a suitable number of paedophile offences?

Here we are with dumb down at its best pushing the binary nonsense of numerics as a measure of safety (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHD1qF6mbww ). Here we are with a dumb question seeking a number as a representation of something else. Super dumb. This stands in contradiction to the rest of the campaign that focuses on people and decision making but hey, lets sum up safety with a number – zero. To cap off the campaign in dumb, the same chase for zero is contradicted by other messages about mistakes others make and the inevitability of accidents?

Dumb down also drives the Dumb Ways to Drive Campaign by Melbourne Metro. How does one justify the spending on this campaign and its supposed success? By the volume of Internet hits! (https://www.safetyrisk.net/dumb-ways-to-die-and-a-strange-sense-of-success/) How bizarre. The same logic makes all kinds of unethical Internet practices ‘successful’. Since when did Internet hits make the rail corridor safer? Since when did using a cartoon of characters committing suicide and calling them ‘dumb’ become a smart way of creating safety in the rail corridor? What simplistic nonsense. I wonder how long it will take for Melbourne Metro to overcome their sunk cost and like Hazardman (https://www.safetyrisk.net/hazardman-disappears/ ), let this dumb down approach to safety disappear into the history of dumb?

Could it be that risk homeostasis is true, protective headgear doesn’t protect? (I wonder if zero harmers watch boxing or other sports of harm (football) for entertainment?) Could it be that slogans of ‘toward zero’ actually prime the population to take greater risks? Will NSW Transport pull their campaign if their numbers go up? Or will they now have to play with the numbers to prove the success of their numerics? Could it be that insulting suicidal ideation as ‘dumb’ is in itself dumb!

Wouldn’t it be good if Safety could get past this quest for dumb? Wouldn’t it be good if Safety was known for those who were intelligent and sophisticated about risk? It’s not likely that we will see any change to dumb until there is reform of the WHS curriculum (https://www.safetyrisk.net/isnt-it-time-we-reformed-the-whs-curriculum/ ), which won’t be soon.

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: Risk Aversion, Risk Homeostasis, Social Psychology of Risk, Zero Harm Tagged With: banned, risk homeostasis

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 7,516 other subscribers

Recent Comments

  • Andrew Floyd on Culture and Risk Workshop – Feedback
  • Leon Lindley on Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness
  • Rob Long on Entertainment, Suckers and Making Money From Safety
  • Rob Long on Celebrating 60 Years of Lifeline
  • Gregg Ancel on Entertainment, Suckers and Making Money From Safety
  • Rob Sams on Celebrating 60 Years of Lifeline
  • Rob long on Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness
  • Rob Long on Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness
  • Rob Long on Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness
  • Rob Long on Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness
  • Admin on Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness
  • Leon Lindley on Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness
  • Admin on Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness
  • Mariaa Sussan on Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness
  • Brian Darlington on Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness
  • Leon Lindley on Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness
  • Narelle Stoll on Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness
  • Narelle Stoll on Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness
  • Brian Edwin Darlington on SPoR Workshops Vienna 26-30 June
  • Rob Long on How to Manage Psychosocial Risks in your organisation

RECOMMENDED READING

viral post – iso 45003 and what it cannot do

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

Celebrating 60 Years of Lifeline

Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness

Duty of Care is NOT Duty to Care (for persons)

Safety, Ethics, SPoR and How to Foster the Abuse of Power

Psychosocial Spin – Naming Bad as Good, Good Work Safety!

How to Manage Psychosocial Risks in your organisation

The Delusions of AI, Risk and Safety

Health, the Poor Cousin of Safety

Psychosocial Health Conversations – Three

Conversations About Psychosocial Risk – Greg Smith, Dr Craig Ashhurst and Dr Rob Long

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

  • 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
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • Culture and Risk Workshop - Feedback
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
  • Safety Acronyms

Recent Posts

  • Culture and Risk Workshop – Feedback
  • The Myth of Certainty and Prediction in Risk
  • Practical Case Studies in SPoR Presented at Vienna Workshops
  • Risk iCue Video
  • Rethinking Leadership in Risk
  • ‘Can’t Means Won’t Try’ – The Challenge of Being Challenged
  • Gesture and Symbol in Safety, the Force of Culture
  • Human Factors is Never About Humans
  • Celebrating 60 Years of Lifeline
  • Smart Phone Addiction, FOMO and Safety at Work
  • Entertainment, Suckers and Making Money From Safety
  • Breaking the Safety Code
  • The Futility of the Centralised Safety Management System?
  • Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness
  • Risk iCue Video Two – Demonstration
  • Radical Uncertainty
  • The Safety Love Affair with AI
  • Safety is not a Person, Safety as an Archetype
  • Duty of Care is NOT Duty to Care (for persons)
  • What Can ‘Safety’ Learn From a Rock?
  • Safety, Ethics, SPoR and How to Foster the Abuse of Power
  • Psychosocial Spin – Naming Bad as Good, Good Work Safety!
  • SPoR Workshops Vienna 26-30 June
  • What Theory of Learning is Embedded in Your Investigation Methodology?
  • How to Manage Psychosocial Risks in your organisation
  • Risk You Can Eat
  • Triarachic Thinking in SPoR
  • CLLR NEWSLETTER–March 2023
  • Hoarding as a Psychosis Against Uncertainty
  • The Delusions of AI, Risk and Safety
  • Health, the Poor Cousin of Safety
  • Safety in The Land of Norom from the Book of Nil
  • Psychosocial Health Conversations – Three
  • Conversations About Psychosocial Risk – Greg Smith, Dr Craig Ashhurst and Dr Rob Long
  • Jingoism is NOT Culture, but it is for Safety
  • CLLR Special Edition Newsletter – Giveaways Update
  • The Disembodied Human and Persons in Safety
  • 200,000 SPoR Book Downloads
  • What SPoR Network is.
  • Trinket Safety
  • How to Know if Safety ‘Works’
  • Due Diligence is NOT Quantitative
  • SPoR Community Network
  • Conversations About Psychosocial Risk Session 2 – Greg Smith, Dr Craig Ashhurst and Dr Rob Long
  • The Psychology of Blaming in Safety
  • By What Measure? Safety?
  • Safe Work Australia a Vision for No Vision
  • Do we Need a Different Way of Being in Safety?
  • Non Common Sense Mythology
  • Language Shapes Culture in Risk

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

There is no ‘Satellite Insightfulness’

Leadership, Risk and the Zone of Reciprocal Relationship

Transdisciplinarity and Worldviews in Risk

The Problem with Zero Harm

The Unconscious and the Soap Dispenser

SPoR Body of Knowledge – A Video

Safety for True Believers

The Measurement Mindset in Safety???

Words Can Change Your Brain

Reality vs Theory, The Binary Divide

A Picture Tells a Thousand Lies in Safety

Questioning Skills and Investigations

Social Psychology of Risk Workshop-Sydney

Expecting the Unexpected

Out of your (Unconscious) Mind

Understanding Goal States, Motivation and SPoR, A Video

Tackling Risk, A Field Guide to Risk and Learning

Dumbs for Safety

None so Blind as Those That Don’t Want to See – Due Diligence

Why Safety Isn’t a Choice You Make

The 5 Ways We Identify Hazards

More Realistic Swiss Cheese Symbol

Why Myths in Safety Work

Real Risk – Free Download

Symbols Matter

‘Man Up’ Safety

When Art Speaks to Harm

Natural Born Learners

Evidence, Proof and Paperwork in Safety

You Don’t Want a Compliance Culture

The Art of the Open Question

By What Measure? Safety?

SEEK Investigations Workshop

Post Graduate Safety Potato Heads

Goals and Vision in Safety

Human Factors Factors

SPoR and Disposing of Bad Myths

The Tyranny of Absolutes

Risk and Safety as a Wicked Problem

Investigations and Truth Telling

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 7,516 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