WHAT ROLE SHOULD THE CONCEPT OF RISK PLAY IN THEORIES OF ACCIDENT INVOLVEMENT

Recently a great deal of emphasis has been placed on the role of risk in theories of accident involvement. This may be exemplified by risk homeostasis theory, which argues that the level of risk people are willing to accept is the sole determining factor in overall accident involvement. The evidence for and against this position is reviewed and it is concluded that there is little evidence in favour of the theory. Several theoretical and methodological inconsistencies are noted. It is concluded that an increased knowledge of the limitations of human risk perception will prove useful in understanding how people react to human error and accident involvement.(a) this paper was included in the proceedings of a cec workshop on risky decision-making in transport held at the tno institute for perception, the Netherlands, 9-11 November 1986. (brown,i, and janssen,w, editors).

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00140139
• Authors:
  • McKenna, F P
• Publication Date: 1988-4

Language

• Undetermined

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 469-84
• Serial:
  • Ergonomics
  • Volume: 31
  • Issue Number: 4
  • Publisher: Taylor & Francis
  • ISSN: 0014-0139
  • EISSN: 1366-5847
  • Serial URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/terg20

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Conferences; Crashes; Decision making; Hazards; Perception; Risk taking; Theory; Travelers
• Uncontrolled Terms: Decreases
• ITRD Terms: 1643: Accident; 2267: Attitude (psychol); 8525: Conference; 2248: Decision process; 9009: Decrease; 2229: Perception; 9150: Risk; 2259: Risk taking; 1755: Road user; 9078: Theory
• Subject Areas: Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00481618
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• Files: ITRD, TRIS, ATRI
• Created Date: Apr 30 1989 12:00AM