I’m old enough to recall when my father “had to” start wearing a hard hat in his job as a construction superintendent. He had grown up as a boilermaker mechanic, so he was familiar enough with wearing them “in the trades” (but not full time), so it took some adjusting for him to get used to that, and adapt … and do it full time, especially since he was no longer working with the tools.
I still have one of his old aluminum hard hats from around that time, and it has a pretty significant dent in it. Whatever caused that dent may not have killed him, but it would have addled him pretty badly (and it did give him a headache). But he didn’t bitch about it much after that.
Nowadays, I have had much the same job that he had towards the end of his career, and when I go on an active jobsite it’s: hardhat, safety glasses with side shields, steel-or-composite toed safety shoes with puncture-resistant soles, and a full-body fall protection harness (and tie off everywhere) when we go above the first few feet in elevation. And no unprotected walking of naked steel beams any more, either (as I had done more than once when I first started in the field). And absolutely no “riding the hook” on a crane to avoid having to climb steps when the elevator isn’t working yet.
It takes a while for some people to adapt to changing standards of “acceptable risk” in many ways. I haven’t ridden a bicycle for many years now (and I never wore a helmet “back in the day”, either). But I would probably wear one now. (Just like football players never wore mouth guards, and baseball players never wore batting gloves and shin protectors when they’re up to bat, and umpires never wore face masks, etc.)
On the other hand, I never could convince my dad to wear a seat belt. And while it’s true that he was never in an accident or other incident that required him to have been wearing one – he was one of the best drivers I ever knew – there are a lot of idiots causing accidents who don’t give one the chance to not need that belt. Some laws can be broken with some impunity, but not the laws of physics.