Abstract
Research indicates that there is a specially adapted, hard-wired brain circuit, the security motivation system, which evolved to manage potential threats, such as the possibility of contamination or predation. The existence of this system may have important implications for policy-making related to security. The system is sensitive to partial, uncertain cues of potential danger, detection of which activates a persistent, potent motivational state of wariness or anxiety. This state motivates behaviors to probe the potential danger, such as checking, and to correct for it, such as washing. Engagement in these behaviors serves as the terminating feedback for the activation of the system. Because security motivation theory makes predictions about what kinds of stimuli activate security motivation and what conditions terminate it, the theory may have applications both in understanding how policy-makers can best influence others, such as the public, and also in understanding the behavior of policy-makers themselves.
Highlights
HUMAN NEUROSCIENCEA biological security motivation system for potential threats: are there implications for policy-making?
The world in which we currently live confronts people responsible for making decisions about security with very challenging issues
This potential-threat system in the brain has been termed the defense system (Trower et al, 1990) and the hazard-precaution system (Boyer and Lienard, 2006). We have called it the security motivation system (Szechtman and Woody, 2004). Our research investigating this system has focused on its role in everyday circumstances, such as behavior to manage threats of contagion due to dirt and germs, and in pathological variants of these behaviors, such as the compulsive hand-washing seen in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Summary
A biological security motivation system for potential threats: are there implications for policy-making?. Research indicates that there is a specially adapted, hard-wired brain circuit, the security motivation system, which evolved to manage potential threats, such as the possibility of contamination or predation. The existence of this system may have important implications for policy-making related to security. The system is sensitive to partial, uncertain cues of potential danger, detection of which activates a persistent, potent motivational state of wariness or anxiety. This state motivates behaviors to probe the potential danger, such as checking, and to correct for it, such as washing.
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