Consequences

Consequences are the reasons you don’t always act as safely as you could. Many times, you are rewarded for risky behavior – like when you get a task done faster by taking a safety shortcut. And sometimes you get punished for safe behavior – like when you wear personal protective equipment that is inconvenient or uncomfortable.

People often take risks because they know they are more likely to get an immediate positive consequence than a negative consequence after taking a safety shortcut. In this sense, people play the odds. The odds of you getting hurt are generally low. That’s why it can be hard to choose a safe behavior over a risky one that ends up giving you an immediate and certain positive consequence.

To understand how consequences influence your behavior, you can:

* List some consequences you have experienced that influenced you to repeat a critical risky action.

* List some consequences you have experienced that caused you to change a risky action to a safe one.