Philosophy:Normalization of deviance

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Short description: Sociological phenomenon

Normalization of deviance, according to American sociologist Diane Vaughan, is the process in which deviance from correct or proper behavior or rule becomes culturally normalized.[1]

Vaughan defines the process where a clearly unsafe practice becomes considered normal if it does not immediately cause a catastrophe: "a long incubation period [before a final disaster] with early warning signs that were either misinterpreted, ignored or missed completely".[2][3]

The original example cited by Vaughan is the events leading to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, but the concept has also been applied to aviation safety,[4][5] clinical practice in medicine,[6] and the public's deviance from health measures aimed to stop the COVID-19 pandemic.[7]

Normalization of deviance can exist in conjunction with corporate omerta where deviation from rules is held up by a code of silence surrounding the deviations or an unspoken agreement on rhetoric within a group of executives. One of the reasons Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed was normalization of deviance based on a criticism of corporate omerta with a "culture of silence".[where?][8]

See also

References

  1. Wilcutt, Terry; Bell, Hal (November 3, 2014). "The Cost of Silence: Normalization of Deviance and Groupthink". https://sma.nasa.gov/docs/default-source/safety-messages/safetymessage-normalizationofdeviance-2014-11-03b.pdf. 
  2. Banja, John (March 2010). "The normalization of deviance in healthcare delivery". Business Horizons 53 (2): 139–148. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2009.10.006. PMID 20161685. 
  3. Vaughan, Diane (January 4, 2016). The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA, Enlarged Edition. University of Chicago Press. pp. 30–1. ISBN 978-0-226-34696-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=erYjCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT30. 
  4. Rosenkrans, Wayne (June 8, 2015). "Normalization of Deviance". https://flightsafety.org/asw-article/normalization-of-deviance/. 
  5. Albright, James (January 2017). "Normalization of Deviance - SOPs are not a suggestion". https://my.bridgew.edu/departments/Aviation/SiteAssets/SitePages/SAFETY%20LINK/Normalization%20of%20Deviance.pdf. 
  6. Price, Mary R.; Williams, Teresa C. (March 2018). "When Doing Wrong Feels So Right: Normalization of Deviance". Journal of Patient Safety 14 (1): 1–2. doi:10.1097/PTS.0000000000000157. ISSN 1549-8425. PMID 25742063. 
  7. Petruzzelli, Emily (2020). "Normalization of Deviance in the Time of COVID-19" (in en). Chemical Engineering Progress: 3. https://www.aiche.org/resources/publications/cep/2020/august/editorial-normalization-deviance-time-covid-19. 
  8. Robison, P., Flying Blind, Doubleday, New York, 2021.