The Effect of Safety Attitudes on Coal Miners’ Human Errors: A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

With the advancement of digital technology, the operation scenarios and work of miners have changed. Although the rate of accidents caused by unsafe conditions is decreasing year by year, the rate of accidents caused by human errors is still high. To investigate the influencing factors of miners’ human errors in the context of smart mines, based on the attitude–behavior model, this paper introduced two variables, situational awareness and task complexity, and established a moderated mediation model to explore the path of safety attitudes on human errors. Using time-lagged data from 246 full-time miners working at smart mines, we found that miners’ safety attitudes were effective in reducing human errors, miners’ safety attitudes reduced human errors through the mediation of situational awareness, and task complexity enhanced the positive relationship between safety attitudes and situational awareness, thus positively moderating the indirect relationship between safety attitudes and human errors. The findings advance a new understanding of how safety attitudes can reduce miners’ human errors. They also provide practical implications on the importance of leadership and finding ways to promote situational awareness as well as maintaining good safety attitudes.