ABSTRACT
Due to the nature of projects, all of the areas outlined in earlier chapters will be influenced by behavioural and psychological factors simply because management involves people interacting to solve problems and make decisions and they tend to behave in predictable ways. To complicate matters further, our concept of risk is simply a perception of what might happen and whilst hazards are present all around us, if there were no future-gazing we would have no risk. Furthermore, because the future has yet to happen, there is a wide range of possible future states which will greatly outnumber the single actual state. This makes risk an illusory concept that exists in the consciousness of individuals developing a solution. The link between mental concept and reality comes through the experience of actual harm, reduced utility or value, in the sense that human lives are lost, health impacts can be observed, the environment is damaged or buildings collapse.1
