Perceptual Bias in Threat Distance: The Critical Roles of In-Group Support and Target Evaluations in Defensive Threat Regulation

Across two studies, we investigate how perceptions of distances to out-group threats may be critically regulated by the presence or absence of one's in-group and by beliefs regarding the potential for danger from the out-group. Threat regulation includes biases in the distance one perceives a threat, such that threats are perceived as relatively more distant by more formidable compared to less formidable individuals. We demonstrate that whether participants are alone or surrounded by their in-group modulates perceptual biases regarding an out-group male's proximity, depending on the degree to which participants evaluate out-group males negatively. Our findings illustrate how investigations of the psychology of motivated biases may benefit from a consideration of such perceptual biases within the functional workings of defensive threat regulation systems (McNaughton & Corr, 2004) and the strategic logic of animal conflict (Parker, 1974).