"Evety Bush And Tree Looks Like An Enemy":the Influence Of Intergroup Threat On Information Processing

The concept of threat is considered a central factor helping to shape the tenor of intergroup perception and relations (Branscombe et al.,1999; Cottrell&Neuberg,2005; Stephan et al.,2009). When threatened, people can respond in different ways, such as fleeing or attacking, but the underlying goal in most cases is self-protection (Black,2006). A large number of research show that there is a bias to threat stimuli for people when felt no explicit threat, such as attention and memory bias (Fox et al.,2000; Hansen&Hansen,1988; Ohman et al.,2001). However, the bias to threat stimuli will disappear when people have an experience of threat. Recently some studies have found that people could not distinguish threat and neutral stimuli when felt threatened, and the threat advantage effect doesn’t exist any more; meanwhile, threatened person would misidentify neutral stimuli as threatening (Baumann&DeSteno,2010; Correll et al.,2011). This phenomenon is "Every Bush and Tree Looks Like an Enemy" effect. Intergroup threat is experienced when members of a group perceive that another group is in a position to cause them harm, including physics and value (Stephan et al.,2009). Intergroup threat includes two basic types—symbolic threat and realistic threat. Whether are they similar at the psychological mechanism, and they produce " Every Bush and Tree Looks Like an Enemy" effect? What is the physiological mechanism of the influence of intergroup threat on information processing? Taking these questions, we designed three experiments.To investigate memory of threat-related and neutral words under symbolic intergroup threat, we employed a signal detection framework and memory-recognition pattern, manipulated symbolic intergroup threat, and required eighty college subjects from low socioeconomic status group memorize threat-related and neutral words in the first experiment. The results showed that (1) control subjects remembered much more threat-related words than neutral words;(2) there was not significant difference between threat-related and neutral words for symbolic intergroup threatened participants;(3) symbolic intergroup threatened participants remembered much more neutral words relative to control participants’.To investigate realistic intergroup threat involving a similar psychological mechanism like as symbolic intergroup threat, the second experiment applied the same method as the first experiment. We adopted memory-recognition pattern, manipulated realistic intergroup threat, and asked eighty low socioeconomic status group students to memory threat-related and neutral words. The findings were (1) control subjects remembered much more threat-related words than neutral words;(2) there was not significant difference between threat-related and neutral words for realistic intergroup threatened participants;(3) realistic intergroup threatened participants remembered much more neutral words relative to control participants.The first and second experiments proved the influence of intergroup threat on information processing by memory, and then the third experiment further inquiry into the physiology mechanism basis on the first two experiments. To directly investigate the mechanism of threat detection threshold under intergroup threat, we applied emotion decision task, manipulated intergroup threat, and used fMRI to record thirty-five low socioeconomic status group students’neural response to threat-related and neutral words. The results showed that (1) threat-related words activated much more and stronger emotional neural response compared to neutral words for low socioeconomic status students;(2) intergroup threatened subjects didn’t discriminate the emotion of threat-related and neutral words;(3) there was no significant difference of neutral words between intergroup threatened subjects and control subjects in the whole-brain analysis;(4) the ROI analysis of VLPFC showed that the neural activation of intergroup threat participants is lower than control participants’when they processed threat words, what states participants inhibited their VLPFC neural activation under intergroup threat.The present research is the first systematic study which proves the influence of intergroup threat on information processing from cognitive and physiological aspects. Behavioral and physiological experiments have both shown the threat bias effect, and participants did not distinguish between the neutral and threatening words under intergroup threat. Behavioral experiments shown that people have a "Every Bush and Tree Looks Like an Enemy" phenomenon under intergroup threat, and they could judge be neutral stimuli to threatening stimuli, but the physiological experiment has shown that when people suppressed the processing of threat words were threatened.