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I think there's the expectation that they should view their jobs more seriously than that of, let's say, a porn director or toy designer.

They are different from the rest of us, in the same way that those who are border patrol officers, paramedics and military officers are. Not only does your job greatly influence your persona but you should be expected to take your job more seriously depending on the subject matter you're dealing with.

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I think his point was that the fact that we rely on such an expectation (in the face of constant evidence that it is insufficient) is one of society's problems. I think that, in general, people do feel an obligation to meet (what they see as) the societal expectations of (what they see as) their role. But from a statistical perspective, relying on individual people to do so as a mechanism to ensure compliance with the role is foolish.

We do not send airplanes into the skies comfortably secure in the knowledge that airline pilots take their responsibilities very seriously. (Which they do, I am sure.) We do not do that because the airline industry cannot survive a failure rate of 'everyone tries hard'. Instead, there are checklists, redundant safety mechanisms, and the like, all of which greatly improve the airline success rate.

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