Zero Harm or 100% Safe?
Both phrases mean the same thing but which is more positive and credible?
I caught a flight home this afternoon and for the first time in a while decided to really listen to the pre take off safety briefing. You have all heard it before…………then near the end they said something like “sit back, enjoy the inflight service and know that you are in the safest of hands”. How much more positive and believable is that than saying “you will suffer Zero Harm on this flight”. Of course the briefing is mostly lip service because in a real emergency pandemonium will break out and survival intuition will kick in (read Rob Long’s article How We Make Decisions About Risk). I was pretty impressed until they said the final words: “Your Safety is Our No1 Priority” – aaaarrgghhhh.
The complete stranger next to me heard me chuckle and asked what was so funny? I asked him how he would feel if the plane and all the airline employees had “ZERO CRASH” all over them. He said “As if, but if they did it would scare the crap out of me…..make me think they knew something pretty bad was going to happen, had like a guilty conscience and were trying to cover it up or something” Mmmmmm?????
