When entering a subway car affording multiple targets for action, how do we decide, very quickly, where to sit, particularly when in the presence of a potential danger? It is unclear, from existing motor and emotion theories, whether our attention would be allocated toward the seat on which we intend to sit on or whether it would be oriented toward an individual that signals the presence of potential danger. To address this question, we explored spontaneous action choices and attention allocation in a realistic context, where a threat-related signal (an angry or fearful individual) and the target for action in that situation could compete for attentional priority. Results showed that participants chose the actions that avoided angry individuals and were more confident when approaching those with a fearful expression. In addition, covert and overt measures of attention showed a stronger avoidance effect for angry, compared to fearful, individuals. Crucially, these effects of anger and fear on attention allocation required the presence of action possibilities in the scene. Taken together, our findings show that in a realistic context offering competing action possibilities, threat-related distractors shape both action selection and attention allocation accordingly to their social function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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行动机会在社会威胁下调节注意力分配。

当进入有多个行动目标的地铁车厢时，我们如何迅速决定坐在哪里，尤其是在存在潜在危险的情况下？从现有的运动和情感理论尚不清楚，我们的注意力是分配给我们打算坐在的座位上，还是将注意力转向表示存在潜在危险的个人。为了解决这个问题，我们在现实的环境中探索了自发的行动选择和注意力分配，在这种情况下，与威胁相关的信号（生气或恐惧的人）和在这种情况下的行动目标可以争夺注意力优先权。结果表明，参与者选择了避免生气的人的行为，并在与表现恐惧的人接触时更加自信。此外，与恐惧的人相比，秘密的和公开的注意方式显示出对愤怒的更强回避效果。至关重要的是，愤怒和恐惧对注意力分配的这些影响要求场景中存在动作可能性。综上所述，我们的研究结果表明，在现实的环境中提供竞争行动的可能性，与威胁相关的干扰因素会相应地根据其社会功能决定行动选择和注意力分配。（PsycINFO数据库记录（c）2019 APA，保留所有权利）。与威胁相关的干扰因素会根据他们的社会功能来影响行动选择和注意力分配。（PsycINFO数据库记录（c）2019 APA，保留所有权利）。与威胁相关的干扰因素会根据他们的社会功能来影响行动选择和注意力分配。（PsycINFO数据库记录（c）2019 APA，保留所有权利）。