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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 24, 2026

Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat

Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat

Published on: September 12, 2014

Distance mitigates perceived threat.

Arthur E Stamps¹

¹Institute of Environmental Quality, San Francisco, CA, USA. InstituteOfEnvironmentalQuality@comcast.net

Perceptual and Motor Skills

|March 13, 2012

Summary

Visual cues like eye contact, sex, facial expression, and posture convey threat, but their impact diminishes with distance. This study determined the specific distances at which these threat cues become ineffective.

Area of Science:

Psychology
Social Psychology
Perception Science

Background:

Distance is known to reduce the impact of visual cues on perceived threat.
Previous research suggests that eye contact, sex, facial expression, and posture can signal threat.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how specific visual cues (eye contact, sex, facial expression, posture) contribute to perceived threat.
To quantify the decrease in threat perception associated with increasing distance for these visual cues.
To identify the distances at which these visual cues no longer convey threat.

Main Methods:

Participants viewed images of individuals displaying combinations of four visual cues: eye contact, sex, facial expression, and posture.
Images were presented in a physical venue setting.

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Participants rated the perceived threat level of each image.

Main Results:

All hypothesized visual cues (eye contact, sex, facial expression, posture) were found to significantly convey threat.
The influence of these visual cues on threat perception decreased as distance increased.
Estimates were generated for the distances at which each visual cue ceased to be perceived as threatening.

Conclusions:

Visual cues related to eye contact, sex, facial expression, and posture are reliable indicators of perceived threat.
The effectiveness of these threat cues is distance-dependent, diminishing significantly with increasing separation.
This research provides empirical data on the range at which specific visual threat cues become ineffectual.