Menu Close

Fear makes things appear closer

Fear can alter our perception of distance, making the object of our fear appear closer than it is.

Psychologists found that the more fearful we are of something, the more we underestimate the time to collision with these objects.

This finding makes evolutionary sense as it is better to flee too early from danger than too late.

It indicates a link between emotion and perception, and has implications for understanding phobias.

Read more at Emory University

Want to write?

Write an article and join a growing community of more than 181,800 academics and researchers from 4,938 institutions.

Register now