Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition

185 Threat Detection

Threatening things are detected more efficiently than nonthreatening things.

People are born with automatic visual detection mechanisms for certain threatening stimuli, such as snakes. These threatening stimuli are detected more quickly than nonthreatening stimuli, and this ability is thought to have evolutionary origins. Efficiently detecting threats no doubt provided a selective advantage for our human ancestors.1

When presented with images containing threatening elements, such as spiders, and nonthreatening elements, such as flowers, people can locate the threatening elements more quickly than the nonthreatening elements. Similarly, people can locate an angry face in a group of happy or sad faces more quickly than a ...