Theodore Roosevelt once said, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Contemporary research suggests that we can better influence the safety-related opinions, attitudes, and actions of others when we have a large degree of expertise and trustworthiness.

A couple months back at my University a young man, a student, was found dead in the creek that runs through a small park on campus. Apparently, he had gotten intoxicated at a party, and then went to a bar with friends.  He ended up leaving the bar at 2 am and walked home alone.  He went to the park, slipped on some of the rocks surrounding the creek and was rendered unconscious in the water where he drowned.