Mediating mechanism of construction noise on workers' safety behavior: evidence from EEG data

Construction noise is a critical environmental factor that significantly influences workers' psychological health and safety behaviors, which can lead to accidents. However, the mechanism through which construction noise affects workers' safety behavior is still unknown. Addressing this research gap, this study aims to examine how construction noise affects workers' safety behavior [safety compliance (SC) and safety citizenship behavior (SCB)] by considering negative emotion and cognitive failure as chain mediators. Using electroencephalography (EEG) experimental methods, this study collected workers' EEG data to measure their negative emotion and cognitive failure, as well as safety behavior data under low (45 dBA), moderate (65 dBA), and high (85 dBA) levels of noise. The results revealed that moderate (versus both low and high) levels of noise significantly enhanced workers' SC and decreased their negative emotion. Additionally, negative emotion significantly mediated the beneficial effects of moderate (versus both low and high) levels of noise on SC. Furthermore, it was found that there was a significant chain-mediating effect of negative emotion and cognitive failure on the link between noise and safety behavior (both SC and SCB). Theoretically, this study advances the understanding of the impact of construction noise on safety behavior from a psychophysiological perspective. Practically, this paper contributes to developing targeted intervention plans to mitigate the adverse effects of construction noise or amplify its beneficial effects.