Create internal tension

Focusing on awareness is the typical educational approach used in safety to change behaviors and attitudes. It’s also common to combine awareness and commitment. Now evidence suggests a third method, combining commitment and the “hypocrisy effect,” listing situations when employees should do something safely, but don’t.

How can the hypocrisy effect be explained? Why does this kind of intervention influence more behavior change than standard awareness and commitment procedures?

Let’s return to the consistency principle. Given a person’s desire to keep his words in line with his actions and vice versa, having people remind themselves of an inconsistency between what they say they will do and what they actually do leads to internal conflict or tension. Social psychologists call this “cognitive dissonance.”

An example of combining commitment and hypocrisy is: employees publicly sign a pledge card to wear safety glasses and earplugs and develop a list of situations in which they should wear the PPE but don’t, such as when mowing the grass in their back yard.

This internal tension is not a pleasant state. It challenges one’s personal integrity. How do you reduce this tension and restore a sense of integrity? Easy – simply change your behavior to make it consistent with your commitment.