We all have one (1) common bias, psychologists call it the “fundamental attribution error.” The fundamental attribution error is the tendency for people to over-emphasize dispositional or personality-based explanations for behaviors observed in others while under-emphasizing situational explanations.
And we have ALL DONE IT at some point in time after an accident. In fact, it has gotten worse with Behavior Based Safety and the stat that everyone likes to repeat… “85% of all accidents are caused by unsafe acts“. This mindset has simply encouraged management personnel to be confident in their belief that accidents happen inside a vacuum of sorts, and the only thing inside the vacuum is the worker and their injury!
When we see or hear of someone performing poorly, we attribute this to some enduring aspect of the individual’s personality. Some will say that he or she is careless, silly, stupid, incompetent, reckless, or thoughtless. But …
if we were to ask the person in question why they are behaving in this fashion, they would almost certainly point to the local situation and say they had no choice circumstances forced them to do it that way. The reality, of course, lies somewhere in between.
So as safety professionals who typically lead accident investigations, we need to be AWARE of this bias and not allow it to creep into our causal analysis.
