Mediating effect of risk propensity between personality traits and unsafe behavioral intention of construction workers

The construction industry has the highest number of casualties per accident, and workers at construction sites are vulnerable to accidents. Current research on unsafe behavior mainly focuses on behavior-based safety at the individual level and safety culture at the organization level; these two safety management rubrics enjoy respective advantages and are essentially complementary. This study takes a psychological approach and examines how personality traits affect unsafe behavior of construction workers. Based on the Big Five personality model and the theory of planned behavior, it is postulated that risk propensity mediates the relationships between personality traits and unsafe behavioral intention of construction workers. Structural equation modeling and bootstrapping techniques were used to analyze data collected from 533 construction workers in China. Results show that (1) personality traits, risk propensity, and unsafe behavioral intention of construction workers are related to each other; and (2) risk propensity plays a partial mediating role on the relationships between personality traits (extraversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness) and unsafe behavioral intention. The findings provide a deeper understanding of how the perceptions of construction workers affect their behaviors.