Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
life. So mirroring safety behavior ofteammembersisintrinsically
rewarding.
Model learning should lead in safety education and can embed classical
conditioning. This defines safety learning as a social event.
In practice, acquiring safety behavior will mostly rely on model learn-
ing. The consequence is that the existing behavioral patterns in a group
or team have a huge impact on the behavior of new employees. These
patterns are
“
contagious.
”
Good patterns strengthen themselves; bad pat-
terns are like weeds
—
hard to get rid of because they pop up all the time.
All together, personal coaching and social control of the team will
be key drivers to strengthen sensitivity for risks. If we can influence the
social control, we can influence risk sensitivity.
3.2 REDUCING RISK SENSITIVITY
For both innate and second-nature risk sensitivity, it is possible to
manipulate the strength of the reaction evoked by external stimuli. So
far, we have only discussed strengthening this response, but reducing it
is also possible. In fact, weakening is a natural process directly related
to the amount of exposure to a stimulus. The more we experience a
stimulus, the less sensitive we become to it. We call this habituation.
There are also cases in which we would really like to become less sensi-
tive, for example, if we have experienced a trauma. In these cases, we
can use a technique called desensitization. Both are described here.
3.2.1 Habituation
Habituation is a gradual decrease of strength of risk sensitivity due to:
Repeated exposure to stimuli, which creates a sense of familiarity.
The more familiar we become with stimuli, the more we start to like
them, the more previous hostile or anxious emotions will be com-
pensated and fade away.
Increased expectancy around stimuli, which creates a sense of con-
trol. The brain knows what is going to happen and does not need to
anticipate so strongly anymore. The need for awareness gradually
decreases. In this way, we can become complacent to risks that were
previously being perceived as hazardous.
