• 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 / Robert Long / Emotions, Bias and Heuristics in Risk

Emotions, Bias and Heuristics in Risk

June 21, 2020 by Dr Rob Long Leave a Comment

imageThe emotions drive decision making and ought to be of interest to those who care about how people manage risk.

It is useful when thinking about human emotions that we identify different ways, impulses and unconscious drives that trigger decision making.

Emotions are integrated into the very nature of what it is be a fallible human and it is this ‘embodiment’ of emotions that separates humans from machines and objects.

All emotions have good and bad sides to them eg. anxiety in the face of risk can be protective and drive caution but, too much anxiety can make you sick. Similarly, anxiety can make one so fearful that they freeze when they should act. Similarly, overconfidence usually results in poor decision making and excessive risk founded in ignorance.

Integral to understanding the emotions is the connection to many cognitive biases and heuristics, these are essential to being a fallible human and needing to act fast and efficiently in the world. A useful guide to cognitive bias can be downloaded here: CLICK HERE OR ON IMAGE BELOW

image

In order to be fast and efficient in living, fallible humans tend to create heuristics (shortcuts) when there is:

· Too much information

· Not enough meaning

· Need to act fast and,

· When needing to remember

No heuristic is good or bad until we perceive that the heuristic used did or didn’t match the outcome. Most of the time our learned heuristics keep us safe and help us move through the world quickly and effectively without being harmed.

Our emotions, biases and heuristics are all interconnected and unconscious. What happens most often is we unconsciously recognize a social context (https://safetyrisk.net/mapping-social-influence-strategies/) and unconsciously respond to our biased perception of risk. This is why understanding the subjectivity of risk is also important (https://safetyrisk.net/all-risk-is-subjective/).

One of the values of meeting with others and conversing about expected risks and documenting them is to try and create a common understanding of risk if the environment can be controlled. However, when in the field and on site where things change rapidly, turbulence occurs and wheels fall off and humans don’t have time to access paperwork, they rely on heuristics, bias, emotions and experience to get them through. Surely, such an important part of being human would be of high importance in any Body of Knowledge? You would think that a discussion of the unconscious, bias, emotions and heuristics would be foundational to any Body of Knowledge about how humans interface with risk.

Yet in the AIHS BoK, in Chapter 7: The Human – As a biological system and Chapter 8.1: The Human- Basic Psychological Principles there is no discussion of these important human ways of ‘being’. Indeed, there is no discussion of the human unconscious in the AIHS BoK nor social psychology but over 30 Chapters on hazards. Indeed, in the Chapter 31.2 OHS Risk and Decision Making, heuristics are mentioned once, there is no discussion of the unconscious and the notion of bias is glossed over.

Safety is indeed, the industry of objects.

From the evidence in the BoK we can only determine that safety knowledge is about being hazard-centric. This is an industry that knows much about objects but precious little about persons. Indeed, there is nothing in the BoK that even seeks to define personhood, even in the chapter entitled Ethics (that is not about ethics but duty). The beginning of an Ethic in Risk is defining personhood.

So, when one knows little about the emotions, bias and heuristics and is consumed by objects and zero, it is a natural outcome to demonize humans as objects and demonize the emotions simply because they are misunderstood by an industry that is silent about them. And this seems to be the basis for how the industry self-defines itself as professional.

  • 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: Robert Long, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: bias, emotion, heuristics

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
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Safety Acronyms
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • What Is Safety?

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

Human Factors Factors

Zero ‘Arm

When Art Speaks to Harm

Foresight Blindness, Hindsight Bias and Risk

Free Online Module: Introduction to The Social Psychology of Risk

The Soul of Mental Health

Test Your Reaction Times

CLLR Christmas 2016 Newsletter and Competition

Tackling the Reality of Harm

CLLR April 2017 Newsletter–Not Your Usual Safety Newsletter!!

Safety Isn’t Sexy, and it Shouldn’t Be!

Introduction to SPoR – Free

Why Would You Talk That Way?

The Social Psychology of Risk Handbook, i-thou

Zero Discourse as Gobbledygook

Free Poster–Risk

Starting Points, Worldviews and Risk

Next Free Online Studies Introduction to Social Psychology of Risk

Safety in Design as if Humans Matter

Making Language in Safety Meaningful

Stand Behind The Yellow Line – Do Engineering Controls Affect Risk?

No Help for Mental Health in Zero

The New Enemy of Safety – The Unconscious

Safety as a Worldview

Investigations and Truth Telling

Transdisciplinary Safety

A Small Change and ‘Y’ it Matters?

Developing Our Inner Introversion

The Foundations of Safety

Safety is NOT a Choice

Traditional Safety

Safety Holistically a Case for Change

Visual Learning and Envisioning Risk

SPoR Community Network

Just Tell Your Mind to Stop It

The Disembodied Human and Persons in Safety

A Philosophy of Safety

The Illusion Of Opposites

Breaking the Safety Code

The Mechanistic Worldview and the Dehumanisation of Risk

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