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Basic Postulates of the Looming Vulnerability Model

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Looming Vulnerability

Abstract

As we saw, across the entirety of the animal kingdom, dynamic approaching objects evoke defensive behavioral reactions. Birds flutter, crouch, or try to fly away. Monkeys crouch or put their arms up protectively, even barnacles close their shells when they sense objects approaching them. Human adults, too, react defensively to rapidly approaching objects, and young children exhibit stranger anxiety to the rapid approach of an unfamiliar adult. People become more anxious as deadlines approach. It would seem obvious that these different observations are connected to anxiety and threat somehow, but how?

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VI, USA

    John H. Riskind

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Neil A. Rector

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  1. John H. Riskind
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  2. Neil A. Rector
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Riskind, J.H., Rector, N.A. (2018). Basic Postulates of the Looming Vulnerability Model. In: Looming Vulnerability. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8782-5_4

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