Worksafe shocks Melbourne pedestrians in new ‘psychological experiments’ campaign via Naked

CB Exclusive – Don’t ask your employees to do something dangerous – they’ll probably do it!

In the 1960s, a notorious series of psychological experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram highlighted people’s willingness to be obedient to requests, even if those requests were harmful to themselves or others.

The experiments demonstrated that most people (around 60 to 70%) were prepared to follow orders that involved harming others (via electrocution in this instance) if told to do so by an authority figure.

In 2012, WorkSafe Victoria has adapted these experiments for its latest campaign to raise awareness of workplace safety. 

WorkSafe, with Naked Communications Melbourne, has adapted the Milgram experiments and put them into a simulated workplace setting to see if people are still willing to obey requests, even if it means others may be harmed.

The WorkSafe experiment film and the results of the research can both be viewed on the Worksafe Facebook page.

VIEW THE ‘OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENT – THE SHOCKING TRUTH’ VIDEO

VIEW THE ‘WOULD YOU ELECTROCUTE SOMEONE IF ASKED’ VIDEO

The WorkSafe obedience experiment was supplemented by quantitative research (conducted by Galaxy Research) that showed the willingness of supervisors to ask employees to do risky or dangerous acts in certain circumstances. The research found:

•    One in five supervisors admitted they would ask their employees to bypass safety to complete a task quickly.

•    One in four supervisors would bypass safety if a $1,000 performance bonus was at stake.

•    Supervisors rate keeping up with productivity and meeting client deadlines as their most important priority ahead of safety

The campaign supported by PR and social media activity, was developed to draw attention to WorkSafe’s primary message for supervisors, ‘Would you do what you ask your workers to do?’ as exemplified in the current TV and outdoor advertising campaign.  

Says Adam Ferrier (left), partner and psychologist at Naked Communications: “We wanted to draw attention to the fact that WorkSafe’s public awareness campaign is founded on real psychological insights.  We are all susceptible to doing dangerous tasks, if asked to do so by our bosses. For anyone who supervises others the message is simple – don’t ask people to do dangerous things, as they just might do them”.

Adds WorkSafe operations general manager, Lisa Sturzenegger: “This approach was a great way to build on our campaign and show the real risks that exist in the workplace.

“We hope it will really hit home how careful all supervisors need to be and how important safety is at all times”.

Agency, Naked Communications Melbourne

Ged Gaskell, Developer