Psychological Safety
From a behavioural and human factors perspective, there’s one critical ingredient that matters more than any tool, training module, or policy:
| Psychological safety.
This may sound surprising in a world dominated by technical controls, but here’s the truth: without psychological safety, even the most sophisticated cybersecurity systems are undermined by silence, fear, and inaction.
What is Psychological Safety?
Psychological safety is the belief that you won’t be punished, humiliated, or ignored for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. In cybersecurity, that translates to a culture where people:
- Admit when they’ve clicked a suspicious link.
- Ask questions without fear of looking ignorant.
- Report potential breaches promptly.
- Collaborate openly with colleagues to solve security problems.
It removes the fear of blame and replaces it with trust, learning, and continuous improvement.
Why It Matters More Than Anything Else
Cybersecurity breaches are often human-enabled, not because people are careless, but because they’re scared, confused, or unsure of what to do. Fear suppresses behaviour. Shame hides risk.
From a behavioural science perspective, psychological safety touches all three elements of the COM-B model (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation – Behaviour):
- Capability: People are more likely to ask questions and seek guidance when they feel safe doing so.
- Opportunity: Open, supportive environments encourage peer learning and cross-functional collaboration.
- Motivation: Employees feel ownership and personal responsibility when they trust that their voice matters.
In other words, psychological safety is the bedrock upon which secure behaviours are built and sustained.
Without It, Everything Else Fails
Organisations often invest heavily in technical controls and awareness campaigns, yet still struggle to shift behaviour. Why?
Because the environment, the invisible culture around security, tells people:
- “Don’t make mistakes.”
- “Don’t ask questions.”
- “Don’t get involved. It’s not your problem.”
That’s the opposite of what we need to build a cyber-resilient society.
The Ripple Effect of Psychological Safety
When psychological safety is embedded into the organisational culture:
- People report sooner, reducing the impact of incidents.
- Security teams learn faster because they receive more honest feedback and frontline insights.
- Employees feel empowered, and security becomes a shared value, not just a rulebook.
It turns cybersecurity from a compliance checkbox into a collective habit. It builds trust, and trust is what drives real, sustained change.
What This Means for Society
At a societal level, psychological safety can shift us from a reactive to a proactive posture. Whether it’s a teenager reporting a scam message, a parent updating their home network settings, or a teacher flagging suspicious activity on a school device, people act when they feel safe to act.
This is how we normalise secure behaviour, through everyday conversations, supportive environments, and cultures that reward openness over perfection.
Where to Begin
For organisations and communities serious about improving cybersecurity behaviour:
- Stop punishing mistakes, start learning from them.
- Train leaders to foster open, blame-free environments.
- Model vulnerability, leaders should share when they need help too.
- Reward reporting, even false alarms are better than silence.
- Make security human, use language and stories people relate to.
Final Thought
You can’t train your way out of a fear-based culture. But you can build a secure one if people feel safe enough to speak, act, and care.
Ultimately, the most powerful cybersecurity control isn’t a technology
Read our guide: A Guide to Embedding Psychological Safety in Cybersecurity Culture