The human factor often becomes the official explanation of the causes of an incident, accident or disaster. However, the meaning of the term “human factor” is not always understood even by the journalists who use it.
Human Factors Concept
The most popular interpretation of the concept of "human factor" is as follows: it is the potential for a person to make an illogical, unprofitable or simply wrong decision in a given situation. The point is that many systems work with the participation of a person, which means that there is a possibility of a violation of the algorithm in the link where the decisive choice is made by a person, and not by a machine.
In situations where the development of events depends on a person's decision, it is impossible to unambiguously predict his choice, therefore, engineers and technical designers who develop complex systems try to exclude a person as much as possible from the process of a machine, program or mechanism in order to provide the system with protection from human factor interference. On the other hand, it is a person who is able to make a non-standard decision in a situation not foreseen by the designers, therefore the human factor is very often the reason for saving many lives and values. The problem is that no matter how perfect the mechanism is, it can only choose from the set of options inherent in it, while a person has the ability to act as he pleases.
From 70 to 90% of aviation accidents and disasters in the world are caused by the human factor.
Causes and Effects
The main reasons that a person makes the wrong choice in a particular situation are:
- lack of information;
- physical and psychological condition;
- moral or emotional hesitation;
- insufficient reaction speed;
- incorrect assessment of the situation.
The fact is that any situation requiring a decision is at least micro-stress, since a person tends to doubt as a result of his actions. A large number of these experiences become the cause of emotional tension and even breakdowns, which leads to an illogical decision. In addition, a person is influenced by the ethical component of choice. Finally, many wrong decisions were made due to a relaxed state, distracted or scattered attention, in moments of mental disorder.
The term "human factor" is used in aviation, medicine, engineering, science and even in corporate governance.
The human personality is still a rather mysterious and multifaceted phenomenon, so it is almost impossible to predict the behavior of a particular person in a given situation with absolute certainty. Consequently, the developers of accurate systems can only hope for the level of training of a person, his resistance to stress and adherence to instructions. The existing level of technology development does not allow to completely exclude a person from the decision-making process; moreover, it is the person's ability for original thinking that many times has become the only reason for resolving a non-standard situation. An example is the false alarms of Soviet and American nuclear strike warning systems during the Cold War. If the decisions were made by the computer, the Third World War would have been inevitable, but the officers of the USSR and the United States were able to correctly assess the situation and prevent the outbreak of conflict.
