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This reminds me of the story about American football padding and feedback loops. Whenever stats are published showing that high schoolers are getting more concu
by kaycebasques 3y ago
This reminds me of the story about American football padding and feedback loops. Whenever stats are published showing that high schoolers are getting more concussions when playing football, the natural reaction is to add more padding. But what ends up happening is that the players get more confident and hit even harder, resulting in more concussions. So the counterintuitive solution might be to remove padding, not add more. Presumably if you feel more "naked" and vulnerable your subconscious will restrain how hard you hit.
I heard this story in the feedback loops section of 101 Universal Design Principles. I haven't looked into the research, so take the idea with a grain of salt.
- Vecr 3y agoThat only applies when you are intentionally hitting your head into things. I would personally wear an appropriate helmet for pretty much everything and do risk analysis to prevent overconfidence and excessive risk taking.
- kaycebasques 3y agoYes, wearing a helmet when biking is obviously safer than not. Maybe there's some kind of upper and lower bounds to the idea.
- rurp 3y agoA similar concept applies to combat sports. Most people see big padded boxing gloves and think they are for limiting damage to the opponent. It's actually the opposite. The gloves protect against breaking your hand on a punch, allowing a boxer to hit their opponent more aggressively. Boxing or MMA without gloves would actually be less harmful, but it appears more brutal so most leagues use gloves.