Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, United States.
School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, China.
J Safety Res. 2020 Feb;72:153-164. doi: 10.1016/j.jsr.2019.12.010. Epub 2020 Jan 3.
Information processing theories of workplace safety suggest that cognition is an antecedent of safety behavior. However, little research has directly tested cognitive factors as predictors of workplace safety within organizational psychology and behavior research. Counterfactuals (cognitions about "what might have been") can be functional when they consist of characteristics (e.g., "upward' - focusing on better outcomes) that alter behavior in a manner consistent with those outcomes. This field study aimed to examine the influence of counterfactual thinking on safety behavior and explanatory mechanisms and boundary conditions of that relationship.
A sample of 240 medical providers from a hospital in China responded to three surveys over a four-month time frame.
Results showed that upward counterfactuals were positively related to supervisor ratings of safety compliance and participation. These relationships were mediated by safety knowledge but not by safety motivation. Upward counterfactuals were more strongly related to safety behavior and knowledge than downward counterfactuals. As expected, safety locus of control strengthened the mediating effects of safety knowledge on the relationship between upward counterfactuals and safety behavior. Conclusions and Practical Applications: The findings demonstrated that counterfactual thinking is positively associated with safety behavior and knowledge, thus expanding the variables related to workplace safety and laying some initial groundwork for new safety interventions incorporating counterfactual thinking.
工作场所安全的信息处理理论表明，认知是安全行为的前提。然而，在组织心理学和行为研究中，很少有研究直接测试认知因素作为工作场所安全的预测因素。当反事实（关于“可能发生的事情”的认知）由改变行为的特征（例如，“向上”——关注更好的结果）组成时，它们可能是有用的，这种方式与这些结果一致。本现场研究旨在检验反事实思维对安全行为的影响，以及这种关系的解释机制和边界条件。
来自中国一家医院的 240 名医疗服务提供者在四个月的时间内完成了三次调查。
结果表明，向上的反事实与主管对安全合规性和参与度的评价呈正相关。这些关系是通过安全知识来中介的，但不是通过安全动机。向上的反事实与安全行为和知识的关系比向下的反事实更紧密。正如预期的那样，安全控制点增强了安全知识在向上的反事实与安全行为之间关系的中介作用。结论和实际应用：研究结果表明，反事实思维与安全行为和知识呈正相关，从而扩展了与工作场所安全相关的变量，并为新的安全干预措施奠定了一些初步基础，这些干预措施将包含反事实思维。
