Originally Posted by
hagen2456
It would make a lot of sense to look inte which kind of cyclists might "risk compensate" and which not. My uneducated guess is that a study might show that very carefull and cautious riders will tend to wear helmets - so they'll have fewer accidents, helmets or not. On the other hand, if you go mountain biking, you may easily be the type who'll take a few chances more with a helmet on.
How this might influence the statistics I can't say.
This is an important point. We aren't, though, talking about mountain bikers.
The people who bring up "risk compensation" as a criticism are assuming that the effect you suppose might only apply to mountain bikers applies to road cyclists generally.