/2795012-what-is-cognitive-dissonance-5afdb76eae9ab800364e4e48.png "optimism bias definition")
With optimism bias, we recognise the hazard, but we believe the chance of that hazard materialising is higher for other people than for ourselves. Optimism bias is the belief that the chances of something bad happening to us relative to other people is low. That voice is what psychologists refer to as “optimism bias”, and it’s a useful tool for understanding human behaviour. What difference will it make, says that voice, it’s not like I’m going to fall and hurt myself. In this way I can safely manoeuvre down the stairs.Įach time I have to move thesebags there is a voice in my head that harrumphs at the hassle. When I come to the stairs, I have to stop and transfer these bags to my right shoulder in order to grasp the hand rail on my left. Being right handed, I naturally load these bags onto my left shoulder. I depart with my handbag, computer bag and food bag. Every day when I leave my office here at Perth airport I have a little battle with myself. It’s easy to shake one’s head and dismiss these behaviours as foolish, but if we’re honest with ourselves, who among us has never been tempted by the “easier” or “faster” shortcut? I know I have. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured in either incident.
#OPTIMISM BIAS DEFINITION DRIVER#
In another incident, a forklift driver elevated a truck driver on the forklift tyne to retrieve freight from the mezzanine level of the truck. The 240kg photocopier fell off the trolley, rolled down the stairs and smashed a window.
#OPTIMISM BIAS DEFINITION MANUAL#
In one incident, two workers were transporting a photocopier down a flight of stairs without a mechanised stair climber and without fixing the photocopier to the manual trolley. The reason why I pose these questions will become clear but before we get to that let’s reflect on two recent incidents that occurred at Toll. Firstly, do you think you are a better-than-average driver? Secondly, do you think you are more safety conscious at work than your peers?
#OPTIMISM BIAS DEFINITION FULL#
Read the full Road Transport Safety and Compliance Newsletter – November 2019 hereīefore you read this column I’d like you to answer two questions. The optimism bias isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It is nice to live life thinking that good things will happen to us. But by acknowledging the optimism bias and being aware of how it affects us, we can make better decisions and avoid potential pitfalls.A great Toll piece of Corporate Safety Leadership. That is, we make more accurate decisions when we are under stress. The classic research on this was done with firefighters. The more stress we endure in a given situation, the less invincible we feel, and when we feel less invincible we make better decisions. The second antidote relates to stress. When we are in stressful situations, the optimism bias is not as strong. If you are trying to convince your teenage child not to smoke, don’t tell him if he smokes he will get cancer. Rather tell him that if he doesn’t smoke he is more likely to make the basketball team.
There are two antidotes to the optimism bias. The first antidote is to focus on the positive rather than the negative. But in spite of those labels, about 500,000 people die from using tobacco products every year. You have heard warnings about not driving while intoxicated. Yet about 10,000 people die every year in alcohol-related traffic accidents. And despite the warnings about the dangers of having unprotected sex, unbelievably, there are about 40,000 new HIV cases each year.
This is why warning labels don’t seem to work. You have probably seen warning labels spelling out the health consequences of cigarettes. The key to optimism bias is that we disregard the reality of an overall situation because we think we are excluded from the potential negative effects. Optimism bias is the belief that each of us is more likely to experience good outcomes and less likely to experience bad outcomes. There are a variety of things in which we all think we are above average, including health, popularity, memory, attractiveness, and even academic and job performance. In fact, there are so many things that we think we are good at that there is name for it: optimism bias. On the old radio show “Prairie Home Companion,” there was a fictitious town called Lake Wobegon where “all the children are above average.” Think about that for a second: not everyone can be above average. Do you think you are a better-than-average driver? Chances are you do. And you know what? So do 80-90% of other drivers.
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