How May Risk Tolerance, Cognitive Appraisal, and Outcome Expectancy Motivate Risk-Taking Behavior? The Implication of Risk Compensation through Multi-Sensor Mixed-Reality System

Despite widespread acclaims for their potential to curb the number of injuries occurring in the construction industry, safety interventions and technological advances appear to have failed to fully achieve their safety objectives, perhaps due to risk-compensation effects, i.e., the possibility that workers protected by these interventions will increase their risk-taking because of an increased sense of security. While previous literature showed that an individual with a higher tolerance for risk is more likely to engage in risk-taking behavior, no studies have empirically examined the relationship between risk tolerance and risk-compensatory behavior within the construction-safety setting. This study aimed to examine whether the effect of providing safety interventions on risk-taking behavior depends, to some degree, on the workers’ outcome expectations and risk tolerance. To do so, immersive multi-sensor mixed-reality with passive haptics was used to capture the naturalistic risk-taking behavior of roofers. Participants were asked to complete a roofing activity under three experimental conditions, i.e., various levels of safety interventions. Real-time location tracking sensors, physiological sensor, the cognitive appraisal of risky events survey (baseline), and semi-structured interviews were used to study workers’ risk-taking behavior in each experimental condition. The results showed that roofers with a higher level of risk tolerance are more likely to be involved in riskier activities or take more risks even when they provided with all required safety interventions. This study raises the need to communicate to workers and safety managers that safety interventions only moderate injury risk but does not necessarily guarantee the complete prevention of injury, particularly if the worker has a high-risk tolerance (i.e., at-risk workers). The results of this study can empower safety managers to identify—with a certain degree of accuracy—which workers are more likely to be involved in risk-compensatory behaviors.