This project aims to advance the understanding of employees' risk-taking behaviour in manufacturing environments, providing critical insights to inform organizational safety strategies. By understanding these tendencies, organisations can proactively design interventions to align employee behaviour with workplace safety goals, contributing to safer work environments. Traditional methods of measuring risk preferences often fail to reflect real-world behaviour, resulting in inaccurate data that hinders the effectiveness of safety initiatives. To address this challenge, this project aims to leverage the power of serious gaming (SG) and Virtual Reality (VR), two technologies that offer compelling advantages in creating realistic, engaging simulations. These technologies allow for active participation in risk scenarios, offering a more authentic representation of decision-making processes than conventional surveys or interviews. Through the development of a VR serious game (VRSG), the project will simulate industry-specific risks, providing an opportunity for employees to demonstrate their natural risk preferences in a controlled yet realistic environment. This innovative approach will not only enhance the accuracy of risk preference data but also support the design of more effective safety interventions tailored to employees’ actual behaviours. By combining SG and VR, this project aims to revolutionise risk assessment and create a safer, more efficient manufacturing environment through data-driven insights into risk-taking behaviour.

Research aims and objectives

The aim of this project is to develop an innovative tool that uses serious gaming (SG) and Virtual Reality (VR) to elicit more reliable data on employees' risk preferences, addressing the gap in traditional risk assessment methods. By integrating these technologies, the project seeks to provide more accurate and authentic insights into risk-taking behaviour in industrial environments, which can be used to inform safety interventions and align employee actions with organizational goals.

The research will be guided by the following four objectives:

• explore Risk Dynamics: Investigate the psychological, social, and environmental factors influencing risk-related decision-making in manufacturing environments to enhance workplace safety
• develop an immersive Virtual Reality Serious Game (VRSG) to simulate real-world industry risks and provide a safe environment for studying decision-making
• evaluate the effectiveness of the VRSG in capturing authentic risk preferences compared to traditional self-reported surveys
• inform Safety Strategies: Analyse behavioural patterns to bridge gaps between reported and observed risk-taking behaviours, providing actionable insights for industry safety policies