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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Attentional bias to threat in social phobia: facilitated processing of threat or difficulty disengaging attention from threat?

There is a growing body of research pointing to the possibility that anxious individuals may have difficulty disengaging their attention from threat-relevant information when this information is task irrelevant (e.g., Amir, N., & Elias, J. (2002). Allocation of attention to threat in social phobia: difficulty in disengaging from task irrelevant cues, Manuscript under review; The Quarterly J. Expo. Psycho. 54A (2001) 665). In the current paper, we report a direct test of this hypothesis in individuals with social phobia. Participants performed a variation of the Posner paradigm (Quart. J. Exp. Psycho. 32 (1980) 3). Social threat, neutral, or positive words cued one of two locations on the computer screen. After the cue disappeared, participants had to detect a probe ("(*)") that appeared in one of the two locations. On some trials the cue was valid (i.e., the probe appeared in the same location as the cue). On other trials the cue was invalid (the probe appeared in a different location than the cue). Yet, on other trials, no cue was presented. All participants were slower in detecting probes following invalid cues than probes following valid cues. Furthermore, individuals with social phobia showed significantly longer response latencies when detecting invalidly cued targets than did controls, but only when the probe followed a social threat word. These results suggest that individuals with social phobia may have difficulty disengaging their attention from socially threatening material.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

[Relation of health threats to other threats in everyday life. Studies performed among students of the faculties of medicine and psychology].

Threat is a colloquial term referring to one of the basic experiences present in almost each area of life. Our attention focused on the examination of the contents as well as mutual relations among recognised threats, health ones in particular in the study group. In order to carry out the study a special Questionnaire of Threat Perception was prepared. Questions concentrated on the existence of threat, possibilities of its prediction, severity of threats, knowledge of effective methods of prevention. They also refer to actions which should be undertaken against those threats. Study group included 81 female students of medicine and psychology. Analysis of results shows that a number of health threats is relatively fewer in comparison to other types of threats that is 15%. Statistically significant differences between recognition of health threats as well as other threats refer to the four dimensions: 1. Possibility of occurrence during the year: here health threats are assessed as less probable within the year. 2. Possibility of prediction: health threats are recognised as less predictable than other threats. 3. Possibility of affecting the course and result of threat is assessed significantly lower for health threats. 4. In the category of health threats the subjects significantly more frequently answered that those threats are entirely random and less frequently that the threat is possible to predict.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2006

Does changing the order of threat and efficacy information influence the persuasiveness of threat messages?

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of changing the conventional threat-before-efficacy order of threat messages on the persuasiveness of a leaflet informing women smokers of the link between smoking and cervical cancer. DESIGN: The study used a between-groups design in which women smokers were sequentially allocated to one of three groups. Two groups received one of two leaflets aimed at providing information about the link between smoking and cervical cancer: one provided threat-before-efficacy information; the other provided efficacy-before-threat information. The third group received no leaflet. METHODS: Participants (N=178) were recruited by a commercial survey organization. Purposeful sampling was used to ensure that women with a wide range of ages and educational qualifications were included. Outcomes were intention to stop smoking, recall of information, and threat and efficacy perceptions. RESULTS: Although women in the 'efficacy-before-threat' group recalled more efficacy information, and those in the 'threat-before-efficacy' group recalled more threat information, the leaflets were similarly persuasive. Compared with women not given a leaflet, those given either of the two leaflets had greater intentions to stop smoking and higher threat and efficacy perceptions. CONCLUSIONS: Informing women of the link between smoking and cervical cancer increases their intentions to stop smoking. Changing the order of threat and efficacy information does not influence the persuasiveness of this message. Order effects may be more likely in experimental contexts using weaker messages or those that are not novel.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Promise is debt, threat another matter: the effect of credibility on the interpretation of conditional promises and threats.

Evidence from reasoning tasks shows that promises and threats both tend to receive biconditional interpretations. They also both display high speaker control. On the face of it, the only difference seems to be the positive or negative signing of the consequent. In a promise, the speaker tries to persuade the hearer to do something by holding out the prospect of a particular reward; in a threat, the speaker tries to refrain the hearer from doing something by holding out the prospect of a particular punishment. This paper investigates the respects in which conditional promises and threats differ further by means of an inference task. The credibility of the consequent was manipulated in order to examine whether the acceptability ratings of inferences based on promises and on threats would be equally affected. The results of the inference task and an analysis of the reasons people give for their answers suggest that the credibility of promises is less affected by the use of excessive consequents than the credibility of threats. In other words, promise remains debt, whereas threat is another matter.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2003

Stereotype threat in the classroom: dejection mediates the disrupting threat effect on women's math performance.

Research on stereotype threat, which is defined as the risk of confirming a negative stereotypic expectation about one's group, has demonstrated that the applicability of negative stereotypes disrupts the performance of stigmatized social groups. While it has been shown that a reduction of stereotype threat leads to improved performance by members of stigmatized groups, there is a lack of clear-cut findings about the mediating processes. The aim of the present study is to provide a better understanding of the mechanisms that stereotype threat causes in women working on mathematical problems. In addition, the study set out to test stereotype threat theory in a natural environment: high school classrooms. The experiment involved the manipulation of the gender fairness of a math test. The results indicate that the stereotype threat effect exists in this everyday setting. Moreover, it appears that dejection emotions mediate the effect of threat manipulation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Distinguishing stereotype threat from priming effects: on the role of the social self and threat-based concerns.

It has been argued that priming negative stereotypic traits is sufficient to cause stereotype threat. The present research challenges this assumption by highlighting the role of the social self and targets' concerns about confirming a negative group-based stereotype. Specifically, in 3 experiments the authors demonstrate that stereotype threat adversely affects the test performance and threat-based concerns of targets (but not nontargets) because only targets' social self is linked to the negative group stereotype. Trait priming, however, harms the test performance of both targets and nontargets but has no effect on their threat-based concerns because trait priming does not require such a link between the social self and the group stereotype. Moreover, the authors show that merely increasing the accessibility of the social self in nonthreatening situations leads to the underperformance of targets but has no meaningful effect on nontargets' test performance.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

You may worry, but can you recognize threats when you see them?; Neuroticism, threat identifications, and negative affect.

The present studies sought to investigate the hedonic consequences of threat-identification skills at low and high levels of neuroticism. Such skills were assessed in terms of both speed (Study 1) and accuracy (Study 2) of identifying threatening objects in cognitive tasks. As predicted, threat-identification skills interacted with trait neuroticism in predicting subjective experiences. Specifically, individuals high in neuroticism experienced lower levels of negative affect during their everyday lives if they were also skilled in identifying threats in the cognitive tasks (Studies 1-2). Such skills did not matter at low levels of neuroticism. This interactive pattern was also replicated in the context of life domain satisfaction (Study 2). The results support the view that avoidance motivation encompasses multiple component processes, including some that are cognitive in nature, and specifically extends self-regulatory views of neuroticism. Of most importance, our data indicate that threat-identification skills can be hedonically beneficial, rather than costly, at high levels of neuroticism.

Affect↗
PubMed2004

A threat in the computer: the race implicit association test as a stereotype threat experience.

Three experiments test whether the threat of appearing racist leads White participants to perform worse on the race Implicit Association Test (IAT) and whether self-affirmation can protect from this threat. Experiments 1 and 2 suggest that White participants show a stereotype threat effect when completing the race IAT, leading to stronger pro-White scores when the test is believed to be diagnostic of racism. This effect increases for domain-identified (highly motivated to control prejudice) participants (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, self-affirmation inoculates participants against stereotype threat while taking the race IAT. These findings have methodological implications for use of the race IAT and theoretical implications concerning the malleability of automatic prejudice and the potential interpersonal effects of the fear of appearing racist.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Conjugate lateral eye movements of "repressors" and "sensitizers" under threat and non-threat conditions.

Investigated the relationship between repression-sensitization and conjugate lateral eye movement (CLEM) tendencies under ego-threat and control conditions. Fifty-one right-handed college males were separated into repressors, sensitizers, or a middle group and were interviewed under a condition intended to produce ego-threat or a neutral condition. Bland and mildly intimate questions were asked of all Ss. Contrary to expectation, repression-sensitization and threat condition were unrelated to eye movement direction. A significant increase in left eye movement was found in response to mildly intimate questions, compared to neutral questions. Results are discussed with reference to earlier research on CLEM and to the cerebral hemispheric dominance theory of the effect.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Factors governing speed of societal responses to threats: precision of definition of the threat may be more important than its anticipated likely severity.

Responses to two recent international public health threats, AIDS and BSE, both exemplify missed opportunities for early intervention. They are in contrast to the response to the Y2K computer issue, a threat of lesser-anticipated consequence but one that was more precisely defined. Lessons from these experiences should inform the public health response to new threats, such as the emergence of multiple drug resistance in human pathogens.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1991

Effects of physical threat and ego threat on eating behavior.

Restrained and unrestrained subjects were subjected to one of three distress manipulations prior to an ad lib taste task. The physical fear threat (anticipated electric shock) significantly decreased unrestrained subjects' eating and slightly increased restrained subjects' eating. Both ego threats (failure at an easy task or anticipating having to give a speech in front of an evaluative audience) significantly increased restrained subjects' eating but did not significantly suppress unrestrained subjects' eating. This pattern supports the proposition that physical fear differs from more general dysphoria in its effects on eating, perhaps because of the divergent effects of these two types of distress on eating control mechanisms, which in turn differ in restrained and unrestrained eaters.

Depression↗
PubMed2006

The 'when' and 'where' of perceiving signals of threat versus non-threat.

We tested the proposal that signals of potential threat are given precedence over positive and neutral signals, reflected in earlier and more pronounced changes in neural activity. The temporal sequence ('when') and source localization ('where') of event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by fearful and happy facial expressions, compared to neutral control expressions, were examined for 219 healthy subjects. We scored ERPs over occipito-temporal sites (N80, 50-120 ms; P120, 80-180 ms; N170, 120-220 ms; P230, 180-290 ms; N250, 230-350 ms) and their polarity-reversed counterparts over medial sites (P80, 40-120 ms; N120, 80-150 ms; VPP, 120-220 ms; N200, 150-280 ms; P300, 280-450 ms). In addition to scoring peak amplitude and latency, the anatomical sources of activity were determined using low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA). Fearful faces were distinguished by persistent increases in positivity, associated with a dynamical shift from temporo-frontal (first 120 ms) to more distributed cortical sources (120-220 ms) and back (220-450 ms). By contrast, expressions of happiness produced a discrete enhancement of negativity, later in the time course (230-350 ms) and localized to the fusiform region of the temporal cortex. In common, fear and happiness modulated the face-related N170, and produced generally greater right hemisphere activity. These findings support the proposal that fear signals are given precedence in the neural processing systems, such that processing of positive signals may be suppressed until vigilance for potential danger is completed. While fear may be processed via parallel pathways (one initiated prior to structural encoding), neural systems supporting positively valenced input may be more localized and rely on structural encoding.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Unconventional biological threats and the molecular biological response to biological threats.

This article concludes this symposium on potential agents of warfare and terrorism with discussion of 3 topics. First, influenza A virus is discussed as a potential biological weapon. Although it does not receive much attention in this role, the potential for mass casualties and public panic certainly exist if an epidemic of a virulent influenza A virus were initiated. Second, agroterrorism, terrorism directed at livestock or poultry or crops, is briefly discussed. Finally, the potential role of techniques of modern molecular biology to create new agents for bioterrorism or enhance the terrorist potential of available agents, and the known roles of these techniques in defense against biological warfare or terrorism are discussed.

Agriculture↗