False-alarm threat perception is favored over missed threats by default
Evidence
One outcome of the tribal psychology mindset is that people may be inclined to perceive threats where none exist, a tendency consistent with the more general bias people display toward avoiding costly errors (Haselton & Buss, 2003). Perceiving threats when none exist may be a less costly error than not perceiving threats when in fact they do exist. Thus, by default people may be predisposed to perceive threats from outgroups. — Walter G. Stephan, Oscar Ybarra, Kimberly Rios Morrison, Intergroup Threat Theory, 31
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to error-management theory and the smoke-detector principle from evolutionary psychology; parallels the better-safe-than-sorry logic in risk perception. — connects to: Conspiratorial beliefs function as group security early-warning systems. — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 104
- SEED: Angle: an article on how paranoia about outgroups is a design feature, not a bug, of human threat detection — and what that means for designing institutions that correct the bias.