2011/06/28 by Kent D. Harber, Douglas Yeung, Anthony Iacovelli · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Behavioral Health and Interventions #Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion #Perception #Closeness #Psychosocial #Psychology #Exaggeration #Social psychology #Human physical appearance
paper · doi:10.1037/a0023995
openalex publication_date 2011/06/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Threatening things are often perceptually exaggerated, such that they appear higher, closer, of greater duration, or more intense than they actually are. According to the Resources and Perception Model (RPM) psychosocial resources can prevent this exaggeration, leading to more accurate perception. Two studies tested RPM. Study 1 showed that the perceived closeness of a threatening object (a live tarantula) but not an innocuous object (a cat toy) was moderated by induced self-worth. Further, the more self-worth that participants experienced, the less close the tarantula appeared to them. Study 2 showed that greater levels of self-esteem reduced perceived height, but only among participants prevented from holding a protective handrail while looking down. Together, these studies confirm that resources moderate the physical perception of both distance and height, that resources moderate perception of threats but not nonthreats, that different resources have similar moderating effects, and that psychosocial resources can supplant physical resources.