Myths of human error and rule following: Besnard & Hollnagel 2012

A paper I go back to probably every year or two from Denis Besnard and Hollnagel explored some myths (as they see it) around industrial safety.

I’ll post a couple on each occasion. For each myth they provide a brief background on why they believe it’s a myth and then a possible revision to improve the realism of each myth.

First up are the apparent myths of:

1. Human error is the largest single cause of accidents and incidents

2. Systems will be safe if people comply with the procedures they have been given

Source: Denis Besnard, Erik Hollnagel. Some myths about industrial safety. 2012. <hal-00724098v1>

Study link: https://hal-mines-paristech.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00724098v1

Link to the LinkedIn article: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/benhutchinson2_a-paper-i-go-back-to-probably-every-year-activity-7023420872598175744-9lWx?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

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