Abstract
Considering the complexity and sometimes unpredictability of human behavior, and its role on workplace injuries, it is surprising that psychological research has contributed relatively little in studying workplace safety compared to technology development. The focus of this paper is thus shifted to psychological investigation of human factors to understand how a hazard is perceived, how a seen hazard is recognized, and how a decision must be made to avoid the hazard. The study is conducted through a three-step experiment including a questionnaire, Balloon-Analogue-Risk-Task (BART) test and safety photos and video clips with an eye tracking system to measure and analyze the relationship between the worker’s personality and perceptions of risks and hazards. A very close relationship was found between the length of time a participant spent looking at a hazard and the number of hazards identified correctly. Participants with a higher safety score were able to recognize more safety hazards than those with lower safety score. Moreover, it was found that risk-takers were underestimating a hazard, whereas more cautious and less risky participants were overestimating a hazard.