The Human Factor: Perceived Pressure

Jay Hopkins

Wednesday, July 06, 2011 at 05:33 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Both real and perceived pressure can lead individuals, even experienced professionals, to cut corners and take unreasonable risks.
Perceived pressure, particularly from urgent situations like medical transport flights, has been identified as a key factor in aviation accidents where pilots made unsafe decisions despite their qualifications.
Pressure can be self-induced (internal) or come from others (external), often overriding sound judgment and leading to inappropriate decisions, especially in high-stakes environments.
To mitigate these risks, it is crucial to consciously assess all sources of pressure, their potential consequences, and one's own capabilities before making critical decisions.

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There is plenty of pressure in life these days. Anyone who has been laid off knows how real the pressure is to find another job. When your boss says, “You’d better get this done by 2 p.m.,” the pressure can be intense, especially when it realistically should take at least until 4 p.m. to complete the job. Making it to work on time; getting your wife to the hospital when the contractions are only a few minutes apart; catching a flight when you left home later than you should have — all these can get our hearts racing and can lead us to cut corners and take risks we would not normally take.

There are other situations in which there really isn’t any pressure, but we can still respond as if there were. For example, when the boss says, “See if you can’t get this done by 2 p.m.,” he or she may be putting the pressure on, or may just be giving you a little pep talk with no intention to make you feel pressured, and yet you still may push yourself and even take risks to make the artificial deadline.