TY - JOUR PY - 2021// TI - Express: when the response does not match the threat: the relationship between threat assessment and behavioral response in ambiguous lethal force decision-making JO - Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) A1 - Pettijohn, Kyle A1 - Biggs, Adam A1 - Gardony, Aaron SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - Deciding when to use lethal force inherently depends on assessing threat, a process that itself incorporates numerous perceptual factors. The current study assessed the relationship between the subjective perception of a threat and a binary behavioral response to a threat (e.g., shoot/don't-shoot or go/no-go). For images of human actors, combined posture and weapon presence impacted threat perception and significantly influenced the likelihood of behavioral threat response. Interestingly, for ambiguous threat stimuli, perceived threat became an increasingly poor predictor of the decision to use lethal force. Specifically, while ambiguous stimuli were often rated as equally threatening across participants, these threat ratings held a fraction of their explanatory power compared to the omnibus test. These results demonstrate an intriguing disparity between subjective threat perception and the behavioral response to use force that does not apply well to ambiguous cases or adequately explain errors in lethal force decisions.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 1747-0218 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1747021820985819 ID - ref1 ER -