Abstract
Within the field of Human Factors and Ergonomics, academics and practitioners spend vast amounts of time and resource considering human behaviour, systems design and elements attributed as contributory to incidents or failures of complex sociotechnical systems. Tools and methods to enhance research and determine meaning from these incidents have been designed and validated. Situational awareness (S.A), 'our understanding of what is going on' has been linked to multiple incidents and outcomes where mismatches in awareness, interpretation and understanding appear to have been contributory to multiple system failures. The ATSB have reported that over 85% of aviation incidents involve a loss of S.A, and that 52 % of approach and landing incidents in Australian aviation are linked to inadequate S.A. Similar findings are reported in road traffic incidents and in relation to incidents in other areas. Despite this ubiquitous concept continually being identified as a factor in safety compromising incidents, elements remain unexplained in current models. For example, the influence of emotion on SA has not yet been examined. This raises some pertinent questions. What determines the selection of cues and information from the world around us to make sense of our situation? Is it a correct perspective, or is it one coloured by the influence of emotions? Do emotional states influence road user SA to an extent that crashes happen? Events such as road rage, and distraction influence the safety of the road system, yet how is this measured? Are our methods able to explain the influence of emotion on road users' perception? Is emotion the enemy of reason, or does affect play a deeper role? The inescapable conclusion is that we do not currently know the extent to which emotion influences SA, and furthermore, we may not have the methodologies to explore this. There is no doubt that the presence of road users from one group can stir emotions in road users from another (e.g. cyclists and drivers). This program of research investigates the presence and influence of emotion on the SA of road users within road systems. The aim is to help understand how affect may influence our awareness and to inform the design of future road systems. Through considering the only recently acknowledged influence of the affective system within other problem fields, we hope to enhance the understanding of how incidents, emotion and loss of S.A. may occur, contributing to improve safety in the road system. This research matters because, without it, we are unable to understand how emotion influences road user SA and behaviour or the role that emotion plays in road accidents.