Associations between risk perception and safety

The relationship between perception of risk and involvement in accidents is receiving increasing attention in the offshore oil industry. A self-completion questionnaire survey was carried out among employees on twelve offshore oil installations in 1994.(1) The number of respondents were 1138. Employee evaluations of the status of safety and contingency measures were affected by physical working conditions, attitudes towards safety and accident prevention work as well as management commitment and involvement in safety promotion. These factors were also related to job stress, perceived risk and risk behaviour. There was a significant positive correlation between perceived risk and risk behaviour, but risk perception was not found to predict risk behaviour. Risk behaviour affected accidents as well as near-misses. The possibility that safety cannot be improved by changing individual risk perception is discussed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.