GROUP INFLUENCES UPON PREFERENCES FOR PERSONAL PROTECTION - A SIMULATION STUDY

To explore the possible influences that work groups have upon their me mbers' safety-related behavior, this research simulated small-group di scussions of an industrial safety issue. The experimental task require d the 96 subjects to select, from a range of seven graded options, the level of personal protection they wished to adopt while performing a series of mechanical operations under adverse conditions. Subjects mad e their own private selections of personal protection, contributed to a group consensus selection, and then made a final private selection. As predicted, subjects' preferred self-protective behaviors shifted af ter group discussion, becoming simultaneously more risky, more homogen ous, and more confident. However, little support was obtained for a hy pothesized polarization of preferences following group interaction.