title: Three common beliefs that are impediments to injury prevention.
abstract: Three common beliefs that are impediments to injury prevention are: (1) the optimistic belief that nothing bad is going to happen, especially to me ('it will never happen to me'); (2) the fatalistic belief that, if something bad does happen, nothing could have been done to prevent it ('accidents happen'); and (3) the moralistic belief that if the injury happens to someone else (eg, you), you probably deserved it--so do not blame me or expect that I should have done anything to help prevent it ('blaming the victim'). On-line blogs and comments are used to illustrate these beliefs. Counter-arguments are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Harvard Injury Control Research Center, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. hemenway@hsph.harvard.edu
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hemenway
mesh_terms: D000056:Accident Prevention; D001290:Attitude; D006801:Humans; D009014:Morals; D011908:Rationalization; D012539:Scapegoating; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*