Are cycle helmets really safe? Psychologists discover people take MORE risks when wearing protective head gear

Daily Mail:

Cycle helmets are promoted as a way of reducing injury if someone is knocked off their bike, but new research suggests they may be increasing the risk of accidents in the first place.

Psychologists have discovered that people wearing cycle helmets tend to take more risks than they would if they did not have one protecting their head.

This suggests much of the protective edge provided by a helmet may be lost by making cyclists more likely to have an accident in the first place.

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Writing in the journal Psychological Science, Dr Tim Gamble and his colleague Dr Ian Walker, both traffic pychologists at the University of Bath, said: ‘Humans adapt their risk-taking behaviour on the basis of perceptions of safety.

‘In a controlled study in which a helmet, compared with a baseball cap, was used as the head mount for an eye tracker, participants scored significantly higher on laboratory measures of both risk taking and sensation seeking.

Read the whole story: Daily Mail