Study finds visual trickery plays into perceived threat
If your toddler screams in terror at the mere sight of Santa, there’s good reason.
A new study in the journal Psychological Science finds that when someone is considered a threat, that person is perceived as being much closer than they actually are. Researchers contend that it’s this visual dupe that helps activate the fight-or-flight response, giving us a head start on protecting ourselves from harm.
“It’s tricking us into seeing the world in a different way — one that ultimately helps us meet our survival goals,” says New York University psychology professor Emily Balcetis.
Teaming up with NYU’s Shana Cole and Cornell University’s David Dunning, Balcetis sought to discover two things: whether our perception of something changes based on the danger it presumably poses, and whether such an effect would apply to anything that incites a strong, negative response or just something threatening.
As such, the researchers compared reactions of both threat and disgust — and their respective effects on vision — in two experiments.
“EMOTIONS CAN ALSO AFFECT HOW WE LITERALLY SEE THE WORLD AROUND US.” EMILY BALCETIS
In the first, 101 college students stood 366.24 cm away from a live tarantula that was placed on a table, then reported the extent to which they felt threat or disgust (or neither). They also gave estimates on how far away they perceived the spider to be.
A second experiment involved 48 college students — this time, all females — under the pretence of a study on impressions.
The women were introduced to a male stranger (secretly in on the experiment) and asked to watch one of three videos: a ‘threat condition’ in which the stranger discussed his love of guns and feelings of pent-up aggression; a ‘disgust’ condition in which he talked about having urinated and spit in customers’ food while working at a restaurant; and a ‘control’ condition in which he neutrally discussed his college classes.
The experiment concluded after participants rated their levels of threat or disgust, as well as the estimated distance between themselves and the male student (who had been seated 335.28 cm away from them).
The results of both studies were astonishingly similar.
“Participants who were more scared than grossedout perceived the spider to be 18 per cent closer than participants who were more grossed-out than scared … (And) when participants were in a small room with another person they found threatening and scary, they perceived that person to be 18 per cent closer than if they considered him to be repulsive and gross,” says Balcetis.
“Emotions play a really significant role in our lives,” says Balcetis.