Design-Based Safety

Overcoming Safety Skepticism

Abstract

We are in an age of disbelief. The March 2015 issue of National Geographic included a feature story called “The War On Science.” Unfortunately, our system safety profession is right in the middle of this battlefield. Most people have no understanding of science, and even less of safety. Many are unable to accept that science can improve safety.

The symptoms of skepticism of science have been around for centuries. At the time Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492, almost everyone believed the world was flat. A hundred years later, Galileo claimed the Earth rotated on its own axis and orbited the sun. His findings were rejected by the church and he was forced to recant. It was not until 450 years later that the church admitted its error. During the 1830s, Charles Darwin developed his theory of natural selection that led to the proposition that humans are distant cousins of monkeys. This was a concept that was hard to swallow for most people, as they believed they had a Divine beginning. Science skepticism made national news in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee, where John Scopes stood trial for teaching evolution in high school. When science conflicts with the public’s core beliefs, it usually loses.