Outcome Knowledge and Under‐reporting of Safety Concerns in Aviation

Abstract

SummaryHigh‐risk industries may learn from accidents, incidents and unsafe behaviours if they are reported and investigated. Despite this, significant under‐reporting of safety concerns occurs. One possible explanation is that because concerns cannot always be reported immediately, the outcome of the concern may influence whether reports are made. In Study 1, participants judged six vignettes in which unsafe acts were described: bad outcomes were judged as more likely to be reported than identical acts with innocuous outcomes. Informing participants that luck may determine whether an outcome is innocuous or bad could increase the reporting of unsafe acts with innocuous outcomes. Although implicit prompts did not increase the likelihood of reporting innocuous outcomes (Study 2), there was evidence that explicit prompts to report safety issues with innocuous outcomes increased the likelihood of reporting. Suggestions for further research and a means to reduce the effect of outcome bias on under‐reporting are presented. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.