Researchers at New York University and Cornell University
have found that objects we perceive as threats appear closer than objects we perceive
as neutral. One study showed that people who perceived an object as a threat estimated
a shorter distance to the object than people who perceived the object as a disgust.
“The results showed that the more threatened participants felt, the closer they
estimated the tarantula to be.” The study concluded that while both emotions of
fear and disgust influence the perception of distance, fear is connected with
the need to move/avoid the threat, and disgust is doesn’t necessitate the need
to move.
Themes of the nature of science:
-Science is repeatable – multiple different studies took place that showed threats appear closer
-Science is based on evidence –
students that perceived the object as a threat judged the distance
to be (an average of) 28.9cm closer than students who perceived the object as neutral
I thought this topic was really interesting, as I’ve often experienced the same effect as described. For example, while I am somewhat terrified of spiders, my mom has no problem, and I often wondered if she was even seeing the same spider as me. It’s amazing that the results in this experiment were so consistent. I’ve always known that fear plays a big role in how people see things, but I never knew it was so literal.
ReplyDeleteI did some more reading to related topics, and some of it was really cool. Apparently sight isn’t the only thing that fear can distort. According to another article, it can also mess with perception of time. If someone is scared of something that is coming towards them, they believe it will hit them sooner.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121022081143.htm