Differences in risk perception between frontline construction workers and managers can create communication barriers and lower the efficiency of safety management. In this study, we focused on frontline construction workers and managers and used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine discrepancies in risk perception across two processes: hazard identification and risk judgment. During hazard identification, workers identified fewer hazards correctly than managers (p = 0.009 < 0.05). Managers also showed larger N200 amplitudes than workers (p = 0.040 < 0.05), which suggests that managers engaged conflict monitoring and inhibitory control more strongly. During risk judgment, workers responded more slowly than managers (p = 0.012 < 0.05). They also showed lower P100 (p = 0.026 < 0.05) and LPP amplitudes (p = 0.024 < 0.05), indicating weaker early visual–attentional gating and less sustained evaluative engagement with hazardous scenes. These patterns indicate that workers rely more on irrelevant information, whereas managers respond more sensitively to potential hazards. By revealing when and how role-based differences emerge, our findings offer a neurocognitive explanation for the persistent gap in risk perception and highlight specific targets for training. These insights can guide risk communication between managers and workers, extend research on risk-perception differences beyond self-report measures, and illustrate the value of ERP as a time-resolved tool for studying risk perception.