BIOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 



them individually and to deal with each man differently 

 in order to help him to overcome his suceptibility to 

 accidents. 



Although each case of accident proneness is unique and 

 complex, and the essence of our procedure in combating 

 accidents is individual attention, we have made certain 

 group comparisons from time to time, to determine the 

 relationship of various isolated traits to the practically 

 important trait of accident susceptibility. One special 

 report of a study by C. S. Slocombe and O. M. Hall covers 

 eighty-six motormen, half of whom have had more than 

 the average number of accidents. Forty-three of them, 

 then, we may call high-accident men; forty-three, low. 

 They were selected and paired for age, length of service, 

 and operating conditions. These two groups, differing in 

 ability to avoid accidents, have been compared with 

 reference to twenty-four other variables. The results are 

 summarized in the accompanying table. 



Reference to the table shows that among these eighty-six 

 motormen, seven had hernia, and all of these are in the 

 high-accident group. Sixteen had a somewhat abnormal 

 blood pressure, and fourteen of these are found in the high- 

 accident class. Of eight who did relatively poorly in a 

 serial-action test, all but one are high-accident men. 

 Thirteen had on their records instances of insubordination; 

 of these, two were in the low-accident group; and so on. 



Here is evidence that accident proneness is associated 

 with personality defect or uncooperative attitude, as 

 measured by records of insubordination, operating de- 

 linquencies, and failure to report for duty. Thirty-nine 

 per cent of the high-accident men, but only 5 per cent of 

 the low-accident men, were defective, as measured by this 

 record of uncooperative behavior. Forty per cent of the 

 high men and 12 per cent of the low showed lack of 

 aptitude, as measured by test S. Forty-nine per cent of the 



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