Abstract
This study aims to examine gender differences among engineering students in terms of risk-taking-related personality traits and risk perception. Thirteen scenarios based on actual fatality cases in the construction industry were used in the analysis. A total of 100 engineering undergraduates (male: 63, female: 37) were interviewed to identify their risk-taking-related personality traits and risk perception. Among ten personality traits, results show that being adventurous was the only personality trait positively correlated with risk-taking behaviour among female respondents. Two personality traits, namely, being adventurous and arrogant, were positively correlated with risk-taking behaviour among male respondents. The personality trait of calm was negatively correlated with risk-taking behaviour among male respondents. In terms of risk perception, females were slightly lower than males. These findings can be used as a reference for designing different safety training and awareness programs for male and female engineers and workers in the construction industry.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Seger, C.: Viewpoint: The Continuing Rise of Women in Construction. Engineering News-Record (2018). https://www.enr.com/articles/45091-viewpoint-the-continuing-rise-of-women-in-construction
McGhee, R.L., Ehrler, D.J., Buckhalt, J.A., Philips, C.: The relation between five-factor personality traits and risk-taking behavior in preadolescents. Psychology 3(8), 558–561 (2012)
Weisberg, Y.J., DeYoung, C.G., Hirsh, J.B.: Gender differences in personality across the ten aspects of the big five. Front. Psychol. 2, 178 (2011). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00178. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3149680/
Turner, C., McClure, R.: Age and gender differences in risk-taking behaviour as an explanation for high incidence of motor vehicle crashes as a driver in young males. Inj. Control. Saf. Promot. 10(3), 123–130 (2003)
Renn, O.: The role of risk perception for risk management. Reliab. Eng. Syst. Safety. 59(1), 49–62 (1998)
Fischhoff, B., Bostrom, A., Quadrel, M.J.: Risk perception and communication. Annu. Rev. Publ. Health. 14, 183–203 (1993)
Tavakol, M., Dennick, R.: Making sense of Cronbach’s alpha. Int. J. Med. Educ. 2, 53–55 (2011)
Yi, W., Chan, A.P.C.: Effects of heat stress on construction labor productivity in Hong Kong: a case study of rebar workers. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public. Health. 14(9), E1055 (2017)
Lucas, R.A.I., Epstein, Y., Kjellstrom, T.: Excessive occupational heat exposure: a significant ergonomic challenge and health risk for current and future works. Extrem. Physiol. Med. 3, 14 (2014)
Alshebani, M.N., Wedawatta, G.: Making the construction industry resilient to extreme weather: lessons from construction in hot weather conditions. Procedia. Econ. Financ. 18, 635–642 (2014)
Chan, A.P.C., Wong, F.K.W., Yam, M.C.H., Chan, D.M.W., Mok, E.C.M., Shea, G.Y.K., Guan, Y., Chung, G.W.Y., Biggs, H., Dingsdag, D.: A research framework for assessing the effects of heat stress on construction workers. In: The Sixth International Structural Engineering and Construction Conference, pp. 1–6. Research Publishing Services, Zurich (2011)
Lee, T.H., Tseng, C.H.: How personality and risk-taking attitude affect the behavior of adventure recreationists. Tourism. Geogr. 17(3), 307–331 (2015)
Reniers, R.L.E.P., Murphy, L., Lin, A., Bartolomé, S.P., Wood, S.J.: Risk perception and risk-taking behaviour during adolescence: the influence of personality and gender. Plos One (2016). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153842
Funding
The authors extend their appreciation to the International Scientific Partnership Program ISPP at King Saud University for funding this research work through ISPP-136.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Ethics declarations
The author declares no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Wong, K., Chan, A.H.S., Alabdulkarim, S.A. (2020). Gender Differences in Risk-Taking-Related Personality Traits and Risk Perception: Implications for Safety Training and Awareness Programs. In: Arezes, P. (eds) Advances in Safety Management and Human Factors. AHFE 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 969. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20497-6_29
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20497-6_29
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-20496-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-20497-6
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)