Misperceiving false threats is cheaper than missing real ones, biasing humans toward seeing threats.

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, 2

Categorization

• DEFINE: Error management theory (Haselton & Buss) — the cost asymmetry explanation for paranoid bias.

Related

• False-alarm threat perception is favored over missed threats by default (similarity 0.92)
• Conspiratorial beliefs function as group security early-warning systems. (similarity 0.79)