Across two studies, this paper explores passengers’ knowledge and perceptions of safety
and risk during voyage at sea. Study 1 showed that, although overall safety knowledge
can be considered good, some differences exist between groups of passengers. Younger
passengers and passengers on shorter trips generally have less safety knowledge than older
passengers and passengers on longer trips. Study 2 addressed the effects of two different
formats of presenting safety relevant information on passengers’ perception of trust, safety
and risk on board. Results showed that passengers receiving an in vivo safety demonstration
and teaching session reported being better informed about safety and expressed
higher levels of trust in the crew compared with passengers receiving on board videoonly
safety instructions. Thus, although video modelling can be an easy and inexpensive
way to deliver safety information our results suggest that additional personalized and live
demonstration quickly builds confidence and trust from passengers that represents an
important asset for commercial transportation companies.