Recognizing Hazardous Attitudes with Geoff Powter

How can our attitude affect our decision-making? The Federal Aviation Agency in the US has identified five specific attitudes that are present in airline accidents when human error is the cause of the crash or mishap. They have labeled these attitudes, the five hazardous attitudes.

These attitudes are anti-authority, invulnerability, impulsivity, macho, and resignation. Each of these attitudes can negatively impact our judgement on a sub-conscious level, meaning we may not be aware of their presence.

In this episode of Delivering Adventure, Geoff Powter joins Chris and Jordy to discuss what the five hazardous attitudes are and how we can recognize them in ourselves and others.

Geoff Powter is a retired psychologist, an experienced climber, writer, and adventurer from the Canadian Rockies. He served as editor of the Canadian Alpine Journal for 13 years and has won 9 National Magazine Awards.

Geoff has authored several books, including Strange and Dangerous Dreams, which won the Jury Prize at the 2006 Banff Mountain Book Festival and was adapted into a radio series. His second most recent book, Inner Ranges, won the Climbing Literature Prize at the Banff Festival in 2019 and the National Outdoor Book Award in the USA. His most recent book Survival Is Not Assured: The Life of Climber Jim Donini, is the Winner of National Outdoor Book Award in the USA.

In this episode, Geoff uses his deep knowledge of phycology and risk taking to help us to better understand the five hazardous attitudes. This is the first of two episodes focussing on how we can recognize and manage these specific human factors.

This is another must listen to episode for anyone who wants to better understand decision making and risk taking.

Key Takeaways

Anti-authority Attitude: This is the “don’t tell me what to do,” mindset.

Recognizing this in ourselves requires us to really question whether our decisions are being made because of our ego and the need to push back on being told what to do. Or is our judgment being influenced by reasoned self-confidence?

Impulsivity Attitude: This is the “do it quickly,” mindset. We can spot this by looking to see if we are skipping steps that we either would normally do or know we should be doing. Also, asking ourselves if we do really need to rush and involving others in discussions can be very beneficial in spotting this in ourselves.

Impulsivity is the one attitude that can cause us to move into situations faster which can push us into the hazard zone more quickly.

Invulnerability Attitude: This is the “It won’t happen to me,” mindset. Invulnerability affects our ability to objectively assess the probability and consequence of taking risks.

Spotting invulnerability requires us to be very aware of whether we really believe that a bad outcome can happen to us.

Macho Attitude: This is the “I can do it,” mentality. The challenge with Macho is that it can cause us to become overconfident. As Geoff pointed out, there is also no macha attitude meaning that the macho attitude is more of a male dominated attitude.

Resignation Attitude: This is the “what’s the use,” mentality. This is the attitude that can cause us to believe that there is nothing that we can do to prevent bad outcomes. This can leave us feeling resigned to fate. This can cause people to go along with what the group says, even if a person feels the group may be wrong.

Resignation attitude can happen when we don’t care or we don’t trust our judgment. It can also happen when we feel helpless or we are not being heard.

Guest Bio

Geoff is a retired psychologist, an experienced climber, writer, and adventurer from the Canadian Rockies. He served as editor of the Canadian Alpine Journal for 13 years and has won 9 National Magazine Awards.

Geoff has authored several books, including Strange and Dangerous Dreams, which won the Jury Prize at the 2006 Banff Mountain Book Festival and was adapted into a radio series. His second most recent book, Inner Ranges, won the Climbing Literature Prize at the Banff Festival in 2019 and the National Outdoor Book Award in the USA. His most recent book Survival Is Not Assured: The Life of Climber Jim Donini, is the Winner of National Outdoor Book Award in the USA.

In 2012 Geoff was the recipient of the Summit of Excellence Award for lifetime contribution to Canadian mountain culture

Geoff has also hosted the Voices of Adventure interview event at the Banff Mountain Festival for 27 years. He currently serves on the board of Directors for the Alpine Club of Canada and Mountain Muscox.

Guest Links

Geoff Powter: Survival is not Assured: The Life of Climber Jim Bonini Available at Amazon, Indigo Chapters, Mountaineers Books,

Geoff Powter: Inner Ranges: An Anthology of Mountain Thoughts and Mountain People Available at Amazon, Indigo Chapters

Geoff Powter: Strange and Dangerous Dreams: The Fine Line Between Adventure and Madness Available at Amazon, Indigo Chapters, Mountaineers Books,

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