WorkSafe Victoria has conducted a mock worksite setup on a busy Melbourne street in which two actors posing as workers asked passers by to hand over a live cable from one to the other.

 

The experiment saw one actor, playing the manager, asking a passer by to hand a live cable to an ‘apprentice’, despite the manager warning that the cable was live.

 

The experiment found 90 per cent of passers by obliged and handed the wire to the apprentice, who then feigned a fake shock and dropped the cable, wherein most passers by continued to try and hand the apprentice the wire again.

 

The experiment was conducted as part of WorkSafe’s supervisors’ campaign, to help demonstrate that people are willing to obey instructions, even if it means others may be harmed.

 

“Supervisors should not be asking workers to do something that is unsafe and dangerous as there is a high likelihood they will,” WorkSafe Operations General Manager Lisa Sturzenegger said.

 

“Supervisors need to be aware of this and ensure the people who are working for and with them are not put into a dangerous situation.”

 

The experiment was based on a series of psychological experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram in the 1960s, which highlighted people’s willingness to obey requests from authority figures, even if those requests were harmful to themselves or others.

 

“Victoria has Australia’s safest workplaces and its employers have, on average, the lowest premiums for workplace injury insurance, however this will only continue if high safety standards are maintained,” Ms Sturzenegger said.