Safety / Stay Safe¶
Psychology (Humanities), 1980s
The most important thing in the whole world ever which has to come before anything else. Usually to prevent a lawsuit.
A favourite of soccer moms and frightened dads everywhere since the 1980s, but it’s impossible to track the origin of the term in any reliable way. In “The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure” (2018) Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt posit Australian psychologist Nick Haslam’s notion of “concept creep”, where, since the 1980s, key concepts in clinical and social psychology, including abuse, bullying, trauma and prejudice, have expanded both “downward” and “outward” to apply to less severe circumstances and to take in novel phenomena. The rise of “Health & Safety“ (HSE) regulation can be attributed to the US Occupational Safety and Health Act 1970 and the UK Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
- https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?&year_start=1950&year_end=2019&content=stay+safe
- https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=stay+safe
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coddling_of_the_American_Mind
- https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/individuals/professor-nick-haslam
- https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-08154-001
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_Safety_and_Health_Act_%28United_States%29
- https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/37