Helmet Wearing Increases Risk Taking and Sensation Seeking

Humans adapt their risk-taking behaviour based on perceptions of safety; this risk compensation phenomenon is typified by people taking more risks when using protective equipment. Existing studies have looked at people who know they are using safety equipment, and have specifically examined changes in behaviours against which that equipment might reduce risk. We demonstrate risk-taking increases in people who are not explicitly aware they are wearing protective equipment; furthermore, this happens for behaviours which could not be made safer by that equipment. In a controlled study where a helmet, rather than a hat, was used as the mount for a head-mounted eye-tracker, participants scored significantly higher on laboratory measures of both risk-taking and of sensation-seeking. This happened despite there being no risk for the helmet to ameliorate and despite it being introduced purely as an eye-tracker. The results suggest unconscious activation of safety-related concepts primes globally increased risk propensity.