ON THE PROBLEM OF PREVENTION

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Benoit, Jean-Pierre; Dubra, Juan
• 署名单位: University of London; London Business School; Universidad de Montevideo
• 刊物名称: INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0020-6598
• DOI: 10.1111/iere.12017
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 787-805
• 关键词: automation bias; redundancy

摘要

Disasters are often precipitated by insufficient preventive care. We argue that there is a problem of prevention in that this lack of care often stems from agents' rational calculations. Positive experiences lead agents to underestimate the risks of disasters; technological improvements and redundancies designed for safety induce agents to reduce their care. Although lower care increases the chances of an accident, the number of redundancies can be adjusted to offset this. However, the accident probability remains constant even as ostensible improvements in safety are made. Checklists can be used to decrease the number of accidents.