ABSTRACT
Maslow’s motivational framework slots safety, next to basic survival needs, as essential. The two main divisions of psychological theories of safety and danger are environmental and interpersonal. Rapid increases in car ownership in China and India, where roads are often unimproved and are crowded with pedestrians and motorized small craft, lead to fatality rates several times higher than in Europe. Unsafe behaviors are also determined by individual and cultural patterns of risk approach and avoidance. In Denmark, they are a permanent part of the roadscape, but in Uganda, they rapidly fall victim to economic necessity and are regularly stolen and turned into saucepans or privy supports. Cultural attitudes and behaviors toward alcohol also play a role in motor safety. Motor safety is only one small area in which safety behaviors are culturally modulated. Instructions to pilots may be misunderstood due to linguistic errors; disruption of flights by passengers claiming entitlements based on their place in a social hierarchy may occur.
