Deciphering mechanisms of anxiety influences on hazard identification in construction situations

The high incidence of safety accidents in the construction industry is largely due to the ineffective identification of potential hazards, which is closely linked to workers' emotional states, particularly anxiety. Unlike existing studies that focus on the single-factor impact of anxiety, this research, based on affective events theory (AET) and attention control theory (ACT), explores the mechanisms by which anxiety affects construction workers' hazard recognition performance. Furthermore, the research framework incorporates working memory capacity (WMC) as a critical moderating variable. Utilizing digital modeling technology to create virtual construction scenarios, the research employed eye-tracking experiments to assess hazard recognition among participants with varying levels of WMC. The experimental results demonstrate that participants with high anxiety levels exhibited significantly poorer hazard recognition performance compared to their low-anxiety counterparts, while higher WMC effectively mitigated this negative impact. The findings indicate that anxiety significantly impairs hazard recognition performance, particularly under high cognitive load situations. This study not only deepens the theoretical understanding of how emotional factors influence construction safety but also provides new theoretical foundations and intervention strategies for occupational health management and safety practices in the construction industry. By incorporating emotional regulation strategies and improving WMC, safety interventions can be tailored to better support workers in hazardous environments, ultimately leading to a reduction in the occurrence of workplace risks.