Citation

Biggs A, Pettijohn K, Gardony A. Q. J. Exp. Psychol. (2006) 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, SAGE Publications)

DOI

10.1177/1747021820985819

PMID

33427067

Abstract

Deciding when to use lethal force inherently depends on assessing threat, a process that itself incorporates numerous perceptual factors. The current study assessed the relationship between the subjective perception of a threat and a binary behavioral response to a threat (e.g., shoot/don't-shoot or go/no-go). For images of human actors, combined posture and weapon presence impacted threat perception and significantly influenced the likelihood of behavioral threat response. Interestingly, for ambiguous threat stimuli, perceived threat became an increasingly poor predictor of the decision to use lethal force. Specifically, while ambiguous stimuli were often rated as equally threatening across participants, these threat ratings held a fraction of their explanatory power compared to the omnibus test. These results demonstrate an intriguing disparity between subjective threat perception and the behavioral response to use force that does not apply well to ambiguous cases or adequately explain errors in lethal force decisions.

Language: en

Keywords

Attention; Lethal Force; Posture; Threat; Weapons