Of guns and snakes: testing a modern threat superiority effectFootnote^*

* The research was conducted at the Psychological Institute, Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale: Menaces et Société, Université Paris Descartes.

References

• Aarts, H., Dijksterhuis, A., & De Vries, P. (2001). On the psychology of drinking: Being thirsty and perceptually ready. British Journal of Psychology, 92, 631–642. doi: 10.1348/000712601162383
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Alexopoulos, T., Muller, D., Ric, F., & Marendaz, C. (2012). I, me, mine: Automatic attentional capture by self-related stimuli. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 770–779. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.1882
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Bargh, J. A. (1996). Principles of automaticity. In E. T. Higgins &A. Kruglanski (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (pp. 169–183). New York: Guilford.
   Google Scholar
• Bex, P. J., & Makous, W. (2002). Spatial frequency, phase, and the contrast of natural images. Journal of Optical Society of America, 19, 1096–1106. doi: 10.1364/JOSAA.19.001096
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Blanchette, I. (2006). Snakes, spiders, guns, and syringes: How specific are evolutionary constraints on the detection of threatening stimuli? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59, 1484–1504. doi: 10.1080/02724980543000204
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Broeren, S., & Lester, K. J. (2013). Relevance is in the eye of the beholder; attentional bias to relevant stimuli in children. Emotion, 13, 262–269. doi: 10.1037/a0030598
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Brosch, T., & Sharma, D. (2005). The role of fear-relevant stimuli in visual search: A comparison of phylogenetic and ontogenetic stimuli. Emotion, 5, 360–364. doi: 10.1037/1528-3542.5.3.360
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Cave, K. R., & Batty, M. J. (2006). From searching for features to searching for threat: Drawing the boundary between preattentive and attentive vision. Visual Cognition, 14, 629–646. doi: 10.1080/13506280500193107
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Crouzet, S. M., Joubert, O. R., Thorpe, S. J., & Fabre-Thorpe, M. (2012) Animal detection precedes access to scene category. PLoS One, 7, e51471. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0051471
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• DeWall, N. C., Maner, J. K., & Rouby, D. A. (2009). Social exclusion and early-stage interpersonal perception: Selective attention to signs of acceptance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 729–741. doi: 10.1037/a0014634
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Fox, E., Griggs, L., & Mouchlianitis, E. (2007). The detection of fear-relevant stimuli: Are guns noticed as quickly as snakes?Emotion, 7, 691–696. doi: 10.1037/1528-3542.7.4.691
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Fox, E., Lester, V., Russo, R., Bowles, R. J., Pichler, A., & Dutton, K. (2000). Facial expressions of emotion: Are angry faces detected more efficiently?Cognition and Emotion, 14, 61–92. doi: 10.1080/026999300378996
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Fox, E., Russo, R., Bowles, R., & Dutton, K. (2001). Do threatening stimuli draw or hold visual attention in subclinical anxiety? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 681–700. doi: 10.1037/0096-3445.130.4.681
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Fox, E., Russo, R., & Dutton, K. (2002). Attentional bias for threat: Evidence for delayed disengagement from emotional faces. Cognition and Emotion, 16, 355–379. doi: 10.1080/02699930143000527
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Frischen, A., Eastwood, J. D., & Smilek, D. (2008). Visual search for faces with emotional expressions. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 662–676. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.134.5.662
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Hansen, C. H., & Hansen, R. D. (1988). Finding the face in the crowd: An anger superiority effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 917–924. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.917
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Jonides, J. (1981). Voluntary versus automatic control over the mind’s eye’s movement. In J. B. Long &A. D. Baddeley (Eds.), Attention and performance IX (pp. 187–203). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
   Google Scholar
• Judd, C. M., Westfall, J., & Kenny, D. A. (2012). Treating stimuli as a random factor in social psychology: A new and comprehensive solution to a pervasive but largely ignored problem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103, 54–69. doi: 10.1037/a0028347
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Koster, E. H. W., Crombez, G., Verschuere, B., & De Houwer, J. (2004). Selective attention to threat in the dot probe paradigm: Differentiating vigilance and difficulty to disengage?Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42, 1183–1192. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2003.08.001
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• LeDoux, J. E. (1996). The emotional brain. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
   Google Scholar
• LoBue, V. (2010). What’s so scary about needles and knives? Examining the role of experience in threat detection. Cognition and Emotion, 24, 180–187. doi: 10.1080/02699930802542308
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• LoBue, V. (2012). Perceptual biases for threat. In G. W. Mills ,S. J. Stone (Eds.) Psychology of bias, pp. 3752. New York: Nova Science
   Google Scholar
• LoBue, V., & DeLoache, J. S. (2008). Detecting the snake in the grass: Attention to fear-relevant stimuli by adults and young children. Psychological Science, 19, 284–289. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02081.x
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• LoBue, V., & DeLoache, J. S. (2011). What so special about slithering serpents? Children and adults rapidly detect snakes based on their simple features. Visual Cognition, 19, 129–143. doi: 10.1080/13506285.2010.522216
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• MacLeod, C., Mathews, A. M., & Tata, P. (1986). Attentional bias in emotional disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 15–20. doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.95.1.15
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Moors, A., & De Houwer, J. (2006). Automaticity: A conceptual and theoretical analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 297–326. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.132.2.297
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Notebaert, L., Crombez, G., Van Damme, S., De Houwer, J., & Theeuwes, J. (2011). Signals of threat do not capture, but prioritize, attention: A conditioning approach. Emotion, 11, 81–89. doi: 10.1037/a0021286
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Öhman, A. (1993). Fear and anxiety as emotional phenomena: Clinical phenomenology, evolutionary perspectives, and information processing mechanisms. In M. Lewis &J. M. Haviland (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 511–536). New York: Guilford Press.
   Google Scholar
• Öhman, A., & Mineka, S. (2001). Fears, phobias, and preparedness: Toward an evolved module of fear and fear learning. Psychological Review, 108, 483–522. doi: 10.1037/0033-295X.108.3.483
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Öhman, A., Flykt, A., & Esteves, F. (2001). Emotion drives attention: Detecting the snake in the grass. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 466–478. doi: 10.1037/0096-3445.130.3.466
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Pessoa, L., & Adolphs, R. (2010). Emotion processing and the amygdala: From a ‘low road’ to ‘many roads’ of evaluating biological significance. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11, 773–783. doi: 10.1038/nrn2920
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Posner, M. I. (1980). Orienting of attention. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32, 3–25. doi: 10.1080/00335558008248231
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Proulx, M. J., & Egeth, H. E. (2008). Biased competition and visual search: The role of luminance and size contrast. Psychological Research, 72, 106113. doi: 10.1007/s00426-006-0077-z
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Purkis, H. M., Lester, K. J., & Field, P. (2011). But what about the empress of Racnoss: The allocation of attention to spiders and doctor who in a visual search task is predicted by fear and expertise. Emotion, 11, 1484–1488. doi: 10.1037/a0024415
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Quinlan, P. T. (2013). The visual detection of threat: A cautionary tale. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 20, 1080–1101. doi: 10.3758/s13423-013-0421-4
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Rinck, M., Reinecke, A., Ellwart, T., Heuer, K., & Becker, E. S. (2005). Speeded detection and increased distraction in fear of spiders: Evidence from eye movements. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114, 235–248. doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.114.2.235
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Sander, D., Grafman, J., & Zalla, T. (2003). The human amygdala: An evolved system for relevance detection. Reviews in the Neurosciences, 14, 303–316. doi: 10.1515/REVNEURO.2003.14.4.303
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Schneider, W., Eschman, A., & Zuccolotto, A. (2012). E-prime user’s guide. Pittsburgh, PA: Psychology Software Tools.
   Google Scholar
• Seligman, M. E. P. (1971). Phobias and preparedness. Behavior Therapy, 2, 307–320. doi: 10.1016/S0005-7894(71)80064-3
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Stolz, J. A. (1996). Exogenous orienting does not reflect an encapsulated set of processes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 22, 187–201.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Töllner, T., Rangelov, D., & Müller, H. J. (2012). How the speed of motor-response decisions, but not focal-attentional selection, differs as a function of task set and target prevalence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109, E1990–E1999. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1206382109
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Vogt, J., Koster, E. H. W., & De Houwer, J. (2016). Safety first: instrumentality for reaching safety determines attention allocation under threat. Emotion. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/emo0000251
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Wyble, B., Folk, C., & Potter, M. C. (2013). Contingent attentional capture by conceptually relevant images. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 39, 861–871.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Yantis, S. (1993). Stimulus-driven attentional capture. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2, 156–161. doi: 10.1111/1467-8721.ep10768973
   Google Scholar
• Young, S. G., Brown, C. M., & Ambady, N. (2012). Priming a natural or human-made environment directs attention to context-congruent threatening stimuli. Cognition and Emotion, 26, 927–933. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2011.625399
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar