Signal Detection on the Battlefield: Priming Self-Protection vs. Revenge-Mindedness Differentially Modulates the Detection of Enemies and Allies
Detecting signs that someone is a member of a hostile outgroup can depend on very subtle cues. How do ecology-relevant motivational states affect such detections? This research investigated the detection of briefly-presented enemy (versus friend) insignias after participants were primed to be self-p...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Public Library of Science
2012
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/69071 |
| _version_ | 1826190830439759872 |
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| author | Becker, D. Vaughn Mortensen, Chad R. Shapiro, Jenessa R. Anderson, Uriah S. Sasaki, Takao Maner, Jon K. Neuberg, Steven L. Kenrick, Douglas T. Ackerman, Joshua |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Becker, D. Vaughn Mortensen, Chad R. Shapiro, Jenessa R. Anderson, Uriah S. Sasaki, Takao Maner, Jon K. Neuberg, Steven L. Kenrick, Douglas T. Ackerman, Joshua |
| author_sort | Becker, D. Vaughn |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Detecting signs that someone is a member of a hostile outgroup can depend on very subtle cues. How do ecology-relevant motivational states affect such detections? This research investigated the detection of briefly-presented enemy (versus friend) insignias after participants were primed to be self-protective or revenge-minded. Despite being told to ignore the objectively nondiagnostic cues of ethnicity (Arab vs. Western/European), gender, and facial expressions of the targets, both priming manipulations enhanced biases to see Arab males as enemies. They also reduced the ability to detect ingroup enemies, even when these faces displayed angry expressions. These motivations had very different effects on accuracy, however, with self-protection enhancing overall accuracy and revenge-mindedness reducing it. These methods demonstrate the importance of considering how signal detection tasks that occur in motivationally-charged environments depart from results obtained in conventionally motivationally-inert laboratory settings. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:46:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/69071 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:46:20Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/690712022-09-30T11:07:46Z Signal Detection on the Battlefield: Priming Self-Protection vs. Revenge-Mindedness Differentially Modulates the Detection of Enemies and Allies Becker, D. Vaughn Mortensen, Chad R. Shapiro, Jenessa R. Anderson, Uriah S. Sasaki, Takao Maner, Jon K. Neuberg, Steven L. Kenrick, Douglas T. Ackerman, Joshua Sloan School of Management Ackerman, Joshua Maxwell Ackerman, Joshua Detecting signs that someone is a member of a hostile outgroup can depend on very subtle cues. How do ecology-relevant motivational states affect such detections? This research investigated the detection of briefly-presented enemy (versus friend) insignias after participants were primed to be self-protective or revenge-minded. Despite being told to ignore the objectively nondiagnostic cues of ethnicity (Arab vs. Western/European), gender, and facial expressions of the targets, both priming manipulations enhanced biases to see Arab males as enemies. They also reduced the ability to detect ingroup enemies, even when these faces displayed angry expressions. These motivations had very different effects on accuracy, however, with self-protection enhancing overall accuracy and revenge-mindedness reducing it. These methods demonstrate the importance of considering how signal detection tasks that occur in motivationally-charged environments depart from results obtained in conventionally motivationally-inert laboratory settings. National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.) (Grant MH64734) U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (Grant W74V8H-05-K-0003) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant BCS-0642873) 2012-02-09T20:21:23Z 2012-02-09T20:21:23Z 2011-09 2010-12 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1932-6203 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/69071 Becker, D. Vaughn et al. “Signal Detection on the Battlefield: Priming Self-Protection Vs. Revenge-Mindedness Differentially Modulates the Detection of Enemies and Allies.” Ed. Manos Tsakiris. PLoS ONE 6.9 (2011): e23929. Web. 9 Feb. 2012. en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0023929 PLoS ONE Creative Commons Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ application/pdf Public Library of Science PLoS |
| spellingShingle | Becker, D. Vaughn Mortensen, Chad R. Shapiro, Jenessa R. Anderson, Uriah S. Sasaki, Takao Maner, Jon K. Neuberg, Steven L. Kenrick, Douglas T. Ackerman, Joshua Signal Detection on the Battlefield: Priming Self-Protection vs. Revenge-Mindedness Differentially Modulates the Detection of Enemies and Allies |
| title | Signal Detection on the Battlefield: Priming Self-Protection vs. Revenge-Mindedness Differentially Modulates the Detection of Enemies and Allies |
| title_full | Signal Detection on the Battlefield: Priming Self-Protection vs. Revenge-Mindedness Differentially Modulates the Detection of Enemies and Allies |
| title_fullStr | Signal Detection on the Battlefield: Priming Self-Protection vs. Revenge-Mindedness Differentially Modulates the Detection of Enemies and Allies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Signal Detection on the Battlefield: Priming Self-Protection vs. Revenge-Mindedness Differentially Modulates the Detection of Enemies and Allies |
| title_short | Signal Detection on the Battlefield: Priming Self-Protection vs. Revenge-Mindedness Differentially Modulates the Detection of Enemies and Allies |
| title_sort | signal detection on the battlefield priming self protection vs revenge mindedness differentially modulates the detection of enemies and allies |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/69071 |
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