Analysis of Construction Workers’ Safety Behavior Based on Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Personality Test in a Bridge Construction Project

Abstract

The construction industry has high accident rates, and construction workers’ unsafe behavior is regarded as a major factor resulting in construction accidents. Behavioral psychology posits that human behavior is driven by psychology, and personality is one of the important psychological characteristics affecting human behavior. However, there is a lack of systematic research on the relationship between the personality and unsafe behavior of construction workers. This research explored the preliminary relationship between the personality type and unsafety behavior of construction workers, and analyzed the differences in safety performance from the perspective of personality types. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was used as the personality evaluation method, and a questionnaire was designed and distributed in a bridge construction project in Jiangsu Province, China. A total of 164 responses were collected, and 129 of them were valid. The results showed that (1) most of construction workers had a preference for extraversion (E) (63.6%), sensing (S) (62.8%), thinking (T) (73.6%), and judging (J) (61.3%); (2) ESTJ (24.8%), ESTP (where P is perceiving) (9.3%), ENTJ (where N is intuition) (9.3%), ISTJ (where I is introversion) (7.8%), and INTJ (7.8%) were the five most diverse personality types, exceeding half of the total number of survey; (3) ESTJ and ESFJ (where F is feeling) types of workers had higher average accident losses (3.6 and 4.0, respectively) than those with the other personality types (less than 2.0); and (4) ESTJ and ESFJ types of construction workers had relatively longer safe periods (3–4 and more than 4.0, respectively) as well. These findings will contribute to the body of knowledge in construction safety management, and help targeted construction worker safety training as well as on-site supervision, thus reducing the possibility of worker injury and improving the safety level on site.