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Three common beliefs that are impediments to injury prevention
  1. David Hemenway
  1. Correspondence to Professor David Hemenway, Harvard Injury Control Research Center, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA; hemenway{at}hsph.harvard.edu

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.

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