Six Principles for Safety Comms

Creating safer communities starts with understanding how people behave and how they can be supported to make safer choices.

We’ve worked on some challenging questions in this space – How do we stop young men from drink driving? How do we encourage people to report crime? How do we keep motorcyclists safe on the roads? How do we stop people from jumping into canals?

We’ve made inroads into building both safer societies and our ‘harm reduction’ evidence base. Along the way, we’ve developed a set of safety principles that reflect what works. These are our practical behavioural rules of thumb that help turn insight into action:

SMUGGLE THE SAFETY
Safety is boring. We must deliver our message through things people want e.g., enjoyment, betterment, belonging.

PRIME BEFORE PANIC
If we want people to act safely under stress, we must cue them in calm moments and reinforce the message until it matters.

BUILD INSTINCTS NOT INSTRUCTIONS
People act when they feel able. Equip them with tools, skills or words that they trust and permission to use them.

STRENGTHEN THE SUPPORT SYSTEM
Bystanders can be powerful triggers for safer behaviour, if they’re equipped and empowered to act.

FIGHT THE FEAR
Fear might capture attention, but it rarely changes behaviour. Give people something to do, rather than something to dread.

STOP SAYING STOP
We must meet our audience where they are. Instead of expecting perfection, we must design for real-world behaviours.

We hope that these principles are useful in your own work. If you’d like to hear more about how we’ve applied them across different projects, feel free to get in touch.