Understanding Safety Hazard Identification in Construction: Role of Emotion, Gender, and Regulatory Focus

Timely and accurate identification of safety hazards on construction sites is essential for preventing workplace accidents. However, few studies have examined the motivational mechanisms underlying safety hazard perception and how regulatory focus interacts with emotion and gender to influence safety hazard identification (SHI) ability. Drawing on affective events theory, social cognitive theory, and regulatory focus theory, this study proposes an emotion-gender-regulation model of SHI and investigates the roles of emotion, gender, hazard perception, and regulatory focus in shaping construction workers’ ability to identify safety hazards. A behavioral experiment involving emotional stimulation, hazard identification tasks, and scale assessments was conducted with 56 individuals who possessed construction site work experience. The results, based on 2,400 valid data points, revealed that emotions significantly influenced SHI duration (participants with negative emotions performed the best), while gender significantly affected SHI accuracy, with females performing better. The level of hazard perception was positively associated with SHI accuracy and negatively associated with SHI duration, yet it did not mediate the effects of emotions or gender on SHI performance. Regulatory focus was found to moderate the mediating role of hazard perception in the relationship between gender and SHI. These findings extend theoretical understanding of emotion-gender-cognition interactions in construction safety and provide practical insights for designing more differentiated safety management and training strategies by considering workers’ emotional states, gender differences, and regulatory focus.