Citation

Bradley GL. J. Saf. Res. 1995; 26(2): 99-105.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, U.S. National Safety Council, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

To explore the possible influences that work groups have upon their members' safety-related behavior, this research simulated small-group discussions of an industrial safety issue. The experimental task required the 96 subjects to select, from a range of seven graded options, the level of personal protection they wished to adopt while performing a series of mechanical operations under adverse conditions. Subjects made their own private selections of personal protection, contributed to a group consensus selection, and then made a final private selection. As predicted, subjects' preferred self-protective behaviors shifted after group discussion, becoming simultaneously more risky, more homogenous, and more confident. However, little support was obtained for a hypothesized polarization of preferences following group interaction.