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

Safety Risk .net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

Discover More on this Site

  • 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
  • PSYCHOLOGY 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
  • Covid-19
    • COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
    • Covid-19 Returning to Work Inductions, Transitioning, Safety Start Up and Re Entry Plans
    • Covid-19 Work from Home Safety Checklists and Risk Assessments
    • The Hierarchy of Control and Covid-19
    • Why Safety Loves Covid-19
    • Covid-19, Cricket and Lessons in Safety
    • The Covid-19 Lesson
    • Safety has this Covid-19 thing sorted
    • The Heart of Wisdom at Covid Time
    • How’s the Hot Desking Going Covid?
    • The Semiotics of COVID-19 and the Social Amplification of Risk
    • Working From Home Health and Safety Tips – Covid-19
    • Covid-19 and the Hierarchy of Control
  • Dr Rob Long 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
    • 77 OF THE MOST CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
    • 500 BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2020
    • 167 CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
    • COVID-19 (Coronavirus) 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
    • 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

I’m biased, but that’s ok!

September 23, 2014 by Rob Sams 13 Comments

I’m biased, but that’s ok!

imageI am about to do something significant in my life and I want to manage risk and reduce it to as low as reasonably practical. This is an important decision that ill impact the rest of my life. I want to make sure I do everything I can so things don’t go wrong.

I’m sure this is a thought we have all had at one time or another. It seems sensible to want to reduce risk and make sure things don’t go wrong, but so often we underestimate how difficult this can be. We also underestimate how the non-conscious part of our brain has such an impact on how we ‘think’ about risk.

If we want to truly understand and deal with risk, we need to recognise that it is subjective and that our thinking about risk is biased in so many ways.

In risk and safety, we often use checklists as a way to identify and assess (deal with) risks. There are many tools available, but none that would quite do the job for what I am about to do. Bugger, a checklist could have made things so much easier, giving me a yes or no to any concern I had about the action I’m about to take. Using a checklist as a prompt to think about risk can be useful, but it also limits our thinking and use of imagination. Checklists also don’t take into account the many, many biases that impact on our thinking when it comes to risk.

With the type of decision I am making (in fact, with most decisions we make or actions we take) the risks can be hard to imagine, especially when I know that I am so biased in my thinking about risk. That is, I know that my thinking is influenced by what occurs in my non-conscious mind and it is so difficult to think objectively. So what are some of the biases associated with how we think about risk?

Ironically, the first bias I think of is availability bias. When I start to think about the decision I’m about to make, I remember someone I know who made the same decision just last week and things went very well for them. I was talking with the person about the decision yesterday so the details are still fresh in my mind. The details about the decision are readily available in my mind, hence the reference to ‘availability’. When I sit back and reflect further though (this time using the conscious part of my mind), I can think of many other examples where the decision didn’t go quite as well, it’s just that these examples happened a while ago and they aren’t something that quickly comes to mind, so they may not impact as much on the way my unconscious ‘thinks’ about them.

Next I think about the last time I made a decision like this and how it wasn’t so good. In fact things went pear shaped a few years after I made the decision last time. It got me worried that the same outcome might happen this time too. Why would things be different this time or could this be that ‘thing’ they call hindsight bias?

We see examples of hindsight bias at play in risk and safety all the time. How many times have you been to conduct an incident investigation and had pre-conceived ideas in your mind about what and how something occured? How many times have you been quick to jump to conclusions based on ‘what happened last time’? It is so hard to go into a situation similar to one we have been in before and not have that cloud our thinking and judgement.

I want to be positive about this decision though, it is a good time in my life and I’ve had nothing but positive feelings about this decision for about 18 months now. A lot of people are going to celebrate with me once I make this decision, in fact we have even organised a party to celebrate after the decision is made. But hang on, could this be that affect bias at play? When we feel good about something, this ‘affect’ can cloud how our non-conscious mind ‘thinks’ about things. ‘Affect’ can come into play in risk and safety too, how we are feeling when we make decisions and judgments will have an impact on how we act.

Finally I decide that I’ve done enough thinking about this and I make the call that I will go ahead and ‘just do it’. I can’t imagine anything that could go wrong, and I don’t want it to. I think that I’ve thought through this logically and rationally (and in reality, done a lot more thinking unconsciously too!). I think to myself, “I’ve weighed up all the possible options and compiled a list of all of the pros and cons, this decision is definitely right and I’m going with it.”

Did I hear someone say ‘hubris’, you know that ‘thing’ associated with over confidence?

Early next week, I will marry my wonderful fiancé. A significant and awesome decision that we are looking forward to. We know that we are taking a risk that will impact the rest of our lives. We know that our decisions about the risks are biased by what we have experienced before, by what we know and what is readily available to us, by how we feel about this, and because we have sunk so much into it. We are conscious that we may underestimate risk and that our confidence clouds our judgment, but we’ve decided the risks are worth taking. Most of our decision making and thinking about the risks associated with the decision have been made in our non-conscious mind.

This is no different to other decisions we make in life. All of our ‘thinking’ is clouded by biases, most of which we aren’t even conscious of. Once we get to know this and recognise our biases, we become better at being able to discern or deal with risk.

How biased are you when you make decisions?

Author:              Robert Sams

Phone:                   0424 037 112

Email:                   robert@dolphyn.com.au

Web:                      http://dolphyn.com.au

Facebook:            Dolphyn Facebook Page

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Rob
Rob Sams

Rob Sams

Owner at Dolphyn
Rob Sams

Latest posts by Rob Sams (see all)

  • I’m just not that into safety anymore - June 1, 2020
  • Social ‘Resiliencing’ - January 7, 2020
  • Resiliencing….. (and other such ‘ings’…) - January 3, 2020
  • Our Social Being – and why it matters in Mental Health and Suicide - December 8, 2019
  • Models of Sensemaking and Suicide (and their challenges) - July 15, 2019
Rob Sams
Rob is an experienced safety and people professional, having worked in a broad range of industries and work environments, including manufacturing, professional services (building and facilities maintenance), healthcare, transport, automotive, sales and marketing. He is a passionate leader who enjoys supporting people and organizations through periods of change. Rob specializes in making the challenges of risk and safety more understandable in the workplace. He uses his substantial skills and formal training in leadership, social psychology of risk and coaching to help organizations understand how to better manage people, risk and performance. Rob builds relationships and "scaffolds" people development and change so that organizations can achieve the meaningful goals they set for themselves. While Rob has specialist knowledge in systems, his passion is in making systems useable for people and organizations. In many ways, Rob is a translator; he interprets the complex language of processes, regulations and legislation into meaningful and practical tasks. Rob uses his knowledge of social psychology to help people and organizations filter the many pressures they are made anxious about by regulators and various media. He is able to bring the many complexities of systems demands down to earth to a relevant and practical level.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Rob Sams, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: bias, decisions, hubris, married, risk

Reader Interactions

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

Primary Sidebar

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

Visit Count – Started Jan 2015

  • 21,289,912 Visitors

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join over 30,000 other discerning safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on The Seduction of Slogans in Safety
  • Bernard Corden on The Seduction of Slogans in Safety
  • Rob Schroder on The Seduction of Slogans in Safety
  • Rob Long on Measurement Anxiety in Safety
  • Antony on Measurement Anxiety in Safety
  • Rob Long on The Quantitative and Qualitative Divide in Safety
  • Bernard Corden on The Quantitative and Qualitative Divide in Safety
  • Bernard Corden on Are You a Safety Clown?
  • Atharva on Road Safety Slogans
  • Rob Long on It’s Always About Paperwork

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Featured Downloads

  • Manual-Handling-Checklist.doc (4824 downloads)
  • Real-Risk-Free-Copy.pdf (5543 downloads)
  • Covid-19 Work From Home Safety Checklist (4630 downloads)
  • Parking Lot Safety Moment (8115 downloads)
  • Risk-Life-Poster-SPoR.pdf (297 downloads)
  • SAFETY-SLOGANS-LIST.doc (6589 downloads)
  • Safety_Training_Needs_Analysis6.doc (5119 downloads)
  • violence_checklist.pdf (729 downloads)
  • Seven-Essential-Safety-Reminders.pdf (685 downloads)
  • Supervising Children Around Water (7195 downloads)
  • Risk-Homeostasis-Target-Risk-3.pdf (1878 downloads)
  • Pre-Purchase-Risk-Assessment-Checklist.pdf (800 downloads)
  • WHS-Legislation-A-to-Z-2012.doc (57598 downloads)
  • Event Risk Management (392 downloads)
  • Volunteer-Risk-Assessment-checklist.pdf (740 downloads)

Recent Posts

  • The Seduction of Slogans in Safety
  • Certificate, Diploma and Masters Studies in SPoR
  • Measurement Anxiety in Safety
  • Are You a Safety Clown?
  • The Quantitative and Qualitative Divide in Safety
  • Balance in Risk and Safety
  • It’s Always About Paperwork
  • Sin-Eaters for Safety
  • Mixed Messages but No Redemption
  • The Silver Bullet

Footer

AUTHORS

  • Alan Quilley
    • Heinrich–Industrial Accident Prevention
    • The Problem With ZERO Goals and Results
  • Bernard Corden
    • AHH$ Covid$afe Chri$tma$ New$letter
    • Paradise by the dashboard light
  • 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
    • In search of plan B in workers’ recovery
    • What and how should we measure to support recovery from injury?
  • James Parkinson
    • To laugh or not to laugh
    • People and Safety
  • John Toomey
    • Who is Responsible for This?
    • Who Are Your People?
  • 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
    • It was the SIA until someone wanted to swing from the Chandelier
    • Common Sense is Remarkably Uncommon
  • Peter Ribbe
    • Is there “Common Sense” in safety?
    • Who wants to be a safety professional?
  • Phil LaDuke
    • Hey Idiots, You’re Worried About the Wrong Things
    • Misleading Indicators
  • Admin
    • Certificate, Diploma and Masters Studies in SPoR
    • Merry Covid Xmas–2020
  • Dr Rob Long
    • The Seduction of Slogans in Safety
    • Measurement Anxiety in Safety
  • Rob Sams
    • I’m just not that into safety anymore
    • Social ‘Resiliencing’
  • Barry Spud
    • Barry Spud’s Hazard Control Tips
    • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
  • Sheri Suckling
    • How Can I Get the Boss to Listen?
  • 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?

FEATURED POSTS

The Tyranny of Absolutes

The Mystery and Paradox of Being an Individual in a Social World

Understanding Psychological Terminology

20 Cognitive Biases That Affect Risk Decision Making

The Safety Spoilsport

A Conference with a Difference

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

10 Reasons Why Safety Can Never Make You Happy

The Paradox of Positivism for Safety

It Takes Two to Tango–Reflections on Safe Behaviour

Investigations and Truth Telling

Free Poster–Risk

The Last Thing is, Don’t Start with Safety

Forecasting Safety

Is Choice The First Casualty in the Worker’s Compensation War?

Lemmings for Lemmings in Leadership and Risk

When ‘Hearts and Minds’ are not ‘Hearts and Minds’

Report on SPoR Convention 2018

Sitting Safely at the Table

Focus on ‘Meeting’ people, not legislation – a path to risk maturity

More Posts from this Category

Paperwork

https://vimeo.com/162034157?loop=0

Due Diligence

https://vimeo.com/162493843?loop=0

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.