An experimental approach for exploring the impacts of work stress on unsafe behaviors

Previous studies have indicated that work stress has a significant impact on unsafe behaviors. This study explored the impacts of work stress on unsafe behaviors quantitatively using experimental methodology by developing a representative operation task to simulate the actual work in coal mines. The participants' work stress and unsafe behaviors were measured by the salivary cortisol concentrations and error rates, respectively. The results indicated that the experimental scenarios could effectively induce work stress, and there was a critical point from where unsafe behaviors were considerably minimized. When the stress level was below the critical point, there was a linear relationship between unsafe behaviors and the stress level. When the stress level was above the critical point, there was a quadratic relationship between them. The stress level below and above the critical point indicated challenge stress and hindrance stress, respectively. The results illustrated the feasibility of the experimental design, providing new ideas to eliminate unsafe behaviors induced by work stress among miners.