Diffusion and the Use of Ski Helmets
As the winter months, approach and our first snowstorms are upon us, ski slopes are opening up around the country for what hopes to be a long season. Ever since I was a child, my family has spent many long weekends and vacations traveling all around the country, visiting various ski resorts. Something that has gotten better in my recent visits but still concerns me is the presence of people not wearing ski helmets when on the slopes. There is no helmet requirement at the various mountains and many choose to skip the safety precaution. Among skiers and snowboarders, trauma to the head is a frequent cause of death and cause of severe disability. Still, there are arguments against this practice including increased obstruction of hearing and vision and the want to increase the risk of the activity.
Ski helmets are increasingly becoming the norm in skiing, lagging behind the use of the helmet in other sports like cycling and kayaking. The introduction of the ski helmet for casual skiers’ safety did not happen until the 1990s, sparked by the death of two individuals within the span of a week. This created an increased use of helmets by mainstream skiers while others still opt for a winter hat under their goggles. Although this spurred the start of wearing helmets, the diffusion of the helmet into widespread use has still not occurred. This event only caused a small cluster of individuals to adopt the safety precaution.
When introducing new products to the market, the product can either quickly spread into the market and be a success, or slowly die out. This success is determined by the price and quality of the good as well as the structure of the network it is placed in and where/who the initial product is marketed to. The structure of the market and the introduction point is what we are interested in when discussing the diffusion of the product into the market. For ski helmets to be adopted by all skiers and snowboarders, the resorts and helmet manufacturers must be able to infiltrate each cluster of people who frequent the mountains. It has been studied that more advanced skiers are more likely to participate in wearing a helmet during their visit as well as more educated people. Since more educated individuals are more likely to be of higher-income status, they are more likely to have their own pair of skis. More advanced skiers are also more likely to have their own pair of skis since they likely ski more frequently. A good target to introduce helmets into a cluster of the population at ski resorts would be renters. These are either inexperienced skiers or skiers of a lower income group, meaning they are less likely to hold a higher education level. By requiring the renter cluster to rent a helmet along with their skis or snowboards, all of the individuals in this cluster have to adopt the behavior of wearing a helmet.
For helmet wearing to form a complete cascade through the skiing community, the density of the remaining network must be less than the threshold for others to adopt. Infiltrating each cluster that visits the ski resort is essential to start the cascade of helmet wearing to the entire network. In class, we discussed that popularity is an influential factor in public opinion and decision making. Individuals do not make independent decisions and therefore the actions of others surrounding them can have a large effect on their behaviors. By introducing helmets to each cluster, their neighbors might follow their behaviors, creating an entire cluster practicing helmet regulations. Introducing a behavior from outside a cluster is much more difficult and in some cases can be impossible, so introducing it from the inside is more effective. This is why it is so important for ski resorts to identify clusters within their guests and introduce behaviors to each. Ski resorts can continue to identify more clusters like families, college students, and season pass holders to make their mountains and guests safer.
https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/10/6/358
https://www.skiinghistory.org/history/ski-helmets-how-we-got-here
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-52755-0_16