The threatening stare: differential response latencies in mild and profoundly retarded adults

Institutionalized retarded adults (N = 120) were studied using a 2 (mild, profound) x 2 (stare, no stare) x 2 (close, far) analysis of variance design. It was expected that threatening-stare conditions would produce smaller response latencies for avoidance and aggressive behavior than would the no-stare condition and, further, that the stare would have greater impact on the profoundly as compared with mildly retarded subjects, especially in the close conditions. These expectations were supported by the response latency data that yielded a highly significant main effect for stare and significant Stare x Retardation and Stare x Distance interactions.