Abstract
This study examines the effects of Virtual Reality (VR) technology on the safety psychological empowerment and risk perception as well as avoidance behavior of cyber-physical system monitoring high-risk mining personnel. We conducted a randomized controlled experiment with 72 mining professionals to assess the effectiveness of a comprehensive VR training system featuring network security elements on behavioral awareness, contrasted with traditional training approaches. The study specifically examines underground mining personnel across four high-risk operational roles, employing a randomized controlled trial design with validated psychological empowerment measures based on established empowerment and social cognitive theories. The results showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in all safety metrics evaluated, with the greatest gains in correct identification of threats (experimental group: 82.5% vs control group: 52.6%) and response times to integrated physical-digital threats (41.5% faster). The data indicate that psychological empowerment, particularly strong competence perception (r = 0.74) and impact (r = 0.65) perceptions, is an essential mediator between VR training and safety outcomes. The Security-Safety Risk Integration model developed in this research aids in explaining the interplay of the multiple theoretical elements such as human perception, technical vulnerabilities, and psychological empowerment elements within a complex mining environment. These findings enhance the understanding of risk perception from a theoretical perspective and practical measures for safety-security training in advanced industrial systems.
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