The Invisible Barrier: How Nudge Theory Keeps Workers Out of Danger

Have you ever slowed your walk when walking on a section of floor that has been painted with yellow diagonal stripes?  You likely did this without any prior knowledge of such a rule – your brain simply automatically reacted to the warning to slow your pace.

This is an example of Nudge Theory.

While the heavy-duty steel guardrails are needed for stopping a runaway 10,000-pound forklift, they are based on the assumption that people will see them and stay in place. However, workers in these environments often experience fatigue from performing the same tasks for extended periods of time, causing them to enter a state of autopilot. In these situations, workers may attempt to bypass the guardrails or slide underneath them in order to save themselves the few seconds it would take to follow the designated path around the area.

This is where invisible barriers come into play. Instead of forcing a person to perform a certain action, nudges encourage that behaviour naturally. For Workplace Safety Barriers, contact https://www.emtek.co.uk/safety-barriers/workplace-safety

Consider how tactile floor transitions could impact worker alertness. By changing the smooth epoxy coating of a floor to a textured, rubberized flooring in areas where hazards may exist, workers can feel the transition with their boots, which leads to a shift in their walking pattern and heightened alertness to potential hazards.

Another example is the use of optical floor illusions. By painting “crevasses” in a facility’s floor or projecting high-contrast LED images onto the walkways, workers are able to perceive the floor as dropping off at certain points. As a result, workers will often stop moving towards a given area of the facility well before they actually reach it.

The safety of an individual is not just dependent on the physical walls that surround them. The human psychology of an individual can be altered by the use of both physical walls and behavioural nudges to increase the safety of that individual.