Journal of Risk Analysis and Crisis Response

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Volume 10, Issue 3, October 2020, Pages 113 - 118

Anchor-based Goals and Personality Effects on Hazard Identification in Risk Assessment

Authors
Piers Fleming*, ORCID, Harry England
School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Centre for Behavioural and Economic Social Science, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
*Corresponding author. Email: p.fleming@uea.ac.uk
Corresponding Author
Piers Fleming
Received 17 July 2020, Accepted 11 October 2020, Available Online 2 November 2020.
DOI
10.2991/jracr.k.201014.001How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Goal; target; anchor; hazard; risk; identification; assessment
Abstract

Hazard identification is a crucial first step in risk assessment. There are many cases in which hazard identification is carried out by non-experts. One concern is that valid hazards are overlooked and so not considered for mitigation or prevention. This study examined whether a goal-setting anchor could encourage the identification of more hazards and so reduce the likelihood that they are overlooked. Seventy-two participants were recruited to an online study to identify hazards in four vignettes. The participants were randomly allocated to a high or low anchor condition in which they were told that experts typically identify at least two or at least eight hazards. Participants also completed a five-factor personality measure. It was found that, compared to the low anchor, the high anchor increased word count, time on task and number of hazards identified. The effect of the anchor on hazards identified was robust even taking into account personality, time on task and word count. Conscientiousness was also associated with identifying more hazards. Overall, the use of anchors to set goals for hazard identification offers a low-cost intervention to improve risk assessment for non-experts.

Copyright
© 2020 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press B.V.
Open Access
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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<Previous Article In Issue
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Journal
Journal of Risk Analysis and Crisis Response
Volume-Issue
10 - 3
Pages
113 - 118
Publication Date
2020/11/02
ISSN (Online)
2210-8505
ISSN (Print)
2210-8491
DOI
10.2991/jracr.k.201014.001How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2020 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press B.V.
Open Access
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - JOUR
AU  - Piers Fleming
AU  - Harry England
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/11/02
TI  - Anchor-based Goals and Personality Effects on Hazard Identification in Risk Assessment
JO  - Journal of Risk Analysis and Crisis Response
SP  - 113
EP  - 118
VL  - 10
IS  - 3
SN  - 2210-8505
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/jracr.k.201014.001
DO  - 10.2991/jracr.k.201014.001
ID  - Fleming2020
ER  -