Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-20-2023

Publication Source

Iscience

Abstract

In high-risk work environments, workers become habituated to hazards they frequently encounter, subsequently underestimating risk and engaging in unsafe behaviors. This phenomenon has been termed "risk habituation"and identified as a vital root cause of fatalities and injuries at workplaces. Providing an effective intervention that curbs workers' risk habituation is critical in preventing occupa-tional injuries and fatalities. However, there exists no empirically supported intervention for curbing risk habituation. To this end, here we investigated how experiencing an accident in a virtual reality (VR) environment affects workers' risk habituation toward repeatedly exposed workplace hazards. We examined an underlying mechanism of risk habituation at the sensory level and evaluated the effect of the accident intervention through electroencephalography (EEG). The results of pre-and posttreatment analyses indicate experiencing the virtual accident effectively curbs risk habituation at both the behavioral and sensory level. The findings open new vistas for occupational safety training.

ISBN/ISSN

2589-0042

Document Version

Published Version

Comments

This open-access article is provided for download in compliance with the publisher’s policy on self-archiving. To view the version of record, use the DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105827

Publisher

Cell Press

Volume

26

Peer Reviewed

yes

Issue

1

Download

Share

COinS