Blog

Safe Spaces: How to Create Psychological Safety in Content Moderation

Recent research has shown that moderation tasks which include the review of egregious or sensitive content have a significant and unique impact on the psychological health of a content moderator. Over time, repeated exposure to sensitive content can lead to significant emotional and psychological challenges, as well as a fundamental change of perspective—a tendency to see the world as a bad place is a typical effect. As with other frontline professionals, continuous exposure to distressing material can and does take a toll on mental health and cognitive functioning.

Content moderators tend to develop effective but unhealthy coping mechanisms of numbing, where their bodies and minds attempt to block or blunt the impact, leading to feeling detached or disconnected from content. For example, compassion fatigue can occur, where empathy is depleted. The problem with this coping strategy is this can spill over into other parts of people’s lives, and numbing or blocking can become habitual. In this article, we examine how to create psychological safety in content moderation—and why it’s essential.

Psychological Safety as a Necessity

One of the ways we can protect moderators from harm and reduce the risk of exposure is by focusing on psychological safety as a priority for any Trust & Safety ecosystem. Psychological safety is defined as an environment where individuals feel safe to express themselves without fear of negative consequences. For content moderators, this freedom of expression and the belief that they are heard and valued is vital to their ability to concentrate, make difficult decisions, and safeguard wellbeing in a demanding environment. Open communication allows people to express their feelings and experiences without fear of punishment, humiliation, or negative consequences. It’s also known to foster emotional wellbeing, reducing the risk of burnout, anxiety, and depression.

Moderating distressing content is inherently stressful. A psychologically safe environment equips moderation teams with the tools and support needed to manage stress effectively and enhance the take-up and efficacy of any already embedded moderator wellbeing program.

Psychological safety can also impact performance. When moderators feel safe, they’re more likely to perform at their best. It encourages people to engage fully in their work, make decisions confidently, and contribute ideas without the fear of negative feedback. This has tangible results in improved job performance and overall productivity.

The organization benefits too. When moderators feel valued and safe, they’re less likely to leave their position. Retaining experienced, tenured employees who understand the complexities of moderation ultimately leads to more efficient content management services. Teams that feel psychologically safe have proven to be more innovative, suggesting improvements in policies and processes, tools, and strategies that lead to better efficiency, better performance, and higher levels of safety in moderation teams.

Monitoring and Assessment

So how do we measure psychological safety? How open is your work environment really? To answer these questions, there’s no better way than asking your people directly. The more commonly used method of assessment is through self-report measures, where people are asked about their feeling of security and safety and support from their peers and leaders. Self-report measures are very useful, but not as effective alone as when they’re combined with objective measures.

One objective way to monitor psychological safety is to incorporate wearable technology into your support program, using devices to monitor physiological signals, such as heart rate variability (HRV). This technology is particularly interesting in this environment because there’s a significant relationship between HRV, mental health, and emotion regulation. Higher HRV is associated with better emotional regulation, reduced anxiety, and lower levels of depression. People with conditions like anxiety disorders, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often have lower HRV.

This type of data and insight is particularly valuable as it better directs your interventions and your workforce management strategies. Only when you know what’s really going on within your team can your interventions or preventative health and safety programs target the issue and be effective.

Putting Psychological Safety at the Heart of Your Organization

Understanding how to create psychological safety is vital for moderators dealing with sensitive content, and requires that a robust monitoring and assessment process be embedded into your psychological health framework. A combination of subjective self-reporting and objective wearable data can provide a comprehensive view of moderator mental health and experience of psychological safety.

Ongoing training and practical resources are critical for maintaining a supportive and safe work environment. Not just for moderators, but for everyone working with or supporting moderation teams—managers, trainers, QA teams. Establishing a culture of psychological safety ought to be an organizational imperative, as individuals will be hard-pressed to build a safe environment without commitment from leadership and senior stakeholders.

Many more elements contribute to a moderator’s wellbeing and how to create psychological safety—and a combination of these leads to greater results. If you want to get concrete examples of how to embed new technologies into your psychological health programs, join us in Amsterdam on November 20, 2024, for a deep-dive and real-time experiment at the Trust & Safety Festival.