Quote:
Originally Posted by FireGilbert
I'm reading a book right now called "Foolproof (why safety can be dangerous and how danger makes us safe)" by the Greg Ip, a Canadian economics commentator for the WSJ.
He says that making things safer can have a negative effect of humans taking more risks. Examples are ABS brakes causing drivers to go faster, financial bailouts causing investors to take more risks eventually leading to the sub prime mortgage bubble, and helmets in football and hockey causing more aggressive play and concussions.
So yes a helmet tobogganing is probably a good idea but keep in mind your kid may then feel indestructible and make riskier decisions.
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I remember a company I worked for made it mandatory that all utility knives had to be automatically retractable. The idea was that it would cut down on cutting injuries if the blade automatically retracts.
It ended up having the opposite effect. People became so complacent that the knives would retract that they stopped checking to do it as you would if you manually had to close them. In rare occasions, small stones or malfunctioning springs would stop the blade from retracting completely and people would jam them into their pockets and cut their legs. In the end, there were more cutting injuries after that experiment.
It was a classic case of equipment that was theoretically there to make things safer, but caused a negative behavioral effect that had the opposite effect.