Using Augmented Virtuality to Examine How Emotions Influence Construction-Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment, and Safety Decisions

AbstractThere is emerging evidence that emotional states can influence human decision making under uncertainty. However, it remains unclear if and how emotions influence people’ ability to recognize hazards, assess safety risk, and make decisions within an occupational safety context. Literature from construction safety, risk perception, and decision science domains was leveraged to create a conceptual model on the influence of incidental and integral emotions on hazard identification, risk assessment, and decision-making skills. The model was then tested via controlled laboratory experiment where participants (N=73) were placed in a high-fidelity augmented virtual construction environment. A mixed-model analyses revealed that contextually relevant emotional responses to the construction hazards modulated subsequent valuations of risk associated and ultimate safety decisions. However, no direct relationship was found between induced emotional states and hazard-identification performance. These results also provide preliminary evidence that emotions, not objective evaluations, may be the primary driver of safety-related decision making. The importance of these findings as they relate to improving safety training programs and well-being of the workforce is detailed in this paper.