Salience theory posits that investors’ attention is disproportionately drawn to returns that stand out relative to a reference point. Building on this insight, we empirically examine how a stock’s salience theory value (ST) affects its future price crash risk. Using a comprehensive sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2005 to 2024, we find that stocks with higher ST are significantly more prone to subsequent price crashes. Mechanism analysis suggests that this relation operates through transient retail speculation and impaired pricing efficiency. High-ST stocks attract retail speculative demand and experience temporary overvaluation, which delays the incorporation of negative information into prices and amplifies the likelihood of abrupt price corrections. We further show that the effect is more pronounced during high-sentiment market conditions and is largely driven by stocks exhibiting salient upside return realizations. Overall, our findings highlight stock salience as a novel behavioral driver of crash risk and offer cautionary insights for investors and regulators.