Pooladvand, S and Hasanzadeh, S (2023) Impacts of stress on workers' risk-taking behaviors: Cognitive tunneling and impaired selective attention. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 149(8): 04023060, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Working within one of the most stressful industries, construction workers face intensive stress loads that adversely affect safety and productivity. While different factors induce stress, time pressure and mental demand are two industry characteristics that can trigger workers' occupational stress. Although previous studies demonstrated the adverse effects of time pressure and mental demand on workers' safety performance, no study has empirically investigated the direct impacts of such factors as task stressors on workers' arousal and stress levels. Further, little is known about the impacts of imposed stress on workers' situational awareness and risk decision-making. Accordingly, this study evaluates changes in individuals' situational awareness and decision dynamics when working under stress imposed by time pressure and mental demand. The study simulated a high-risk electrical activity within a multimodel mixed-reality environment and captured participants' physiological and cognitive responses to measure their stress levels and cognitive processes while completing the electrical task under normal and stressful conditions. Results showed high stress levels triggered by task stressors adversely affect one's cognitive processes, including attentional distribution: Excessive stress led subjects to miss surrounding hazards, leading to impaired risk perception and increased risk-taking behaviors. The findings of this study provide valuable insights into how the occupational stress imposed by task stressors can disturb workers' cognitive processes, reduce their situational awareness, and give rise to high-risk behaviors.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Index terms: | dynamics, construction worker, productivity, decision-making, risk behaviour, safety performance, stressors, risk taking, face, occupational stres, risk perception |
| Subjects: | practitioner, psychology, management, decision-making and reasoning, environmental hazards, systems engineering, occupational health and safety management, health conditions and diseases, decision analysis |
| Topics: | Risk Management, Roles and Professions, Sustainability, Business Strategy, Health and Safety, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here