Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 4A Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, PR China.
Perceptual and motor skills 2012 DecStamps found that the effects of visual cues on the perception of threat decrease with distance, even when the range of distance is extended to 45 m. The present comment suggests that the findings Stamps obtained in a Western culture may not hold in other cultures. The robustness of these findings might be improved by using real targets at actual physical distances and "necessarily high" threats. Further studies are needed to examine whether other dimensions of psychological distance have the same effect on threat perception as does spatial distance. There is also a need to examine whether perceived threats have a significant effect on the perception of spatial distance.
Yin Su, Yu Zheng, Shu Li. Culture, distance, and threat perception: comment on Stamps (2011). Perceptual and motor skills. 2012 Dec;115(3):752-4
PMID: 23409589
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