ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the social environment of most laborers around the world and has profoundly affected people's ontological security and behavior choices. Among them, the migrant workers are one of the groups most affected by the pandemic. OBJECTIVE: This study explored the mechanism of the impact of the scarcity of ontological security caused by the pandemic on the risk-taking tendency of migrant workers in China through two studies. METHODS: This study adopts two experimental method, with 514 participants in the first study and 357 participants in the second study. RESULTS: The results show that the pandemic-induced scarcity perception of ontological security promotes their risk-taking tendency, and the migrant workers' cognitive reflection ability, sense of unfairness and expected benefits play a significant mediating role in this process. The scarcity perception of ontological security promotes migrant workers' risk-taking tendency by reducing the cognitive reflection ability, triggering the sense of unfairness and overstating expected benefits. CONCLUSIONS: The conclusion of this study can help migrant workers, enterprises and government to avoid potential workplace and social bad behavior.