Attentional bias

Biological Parallel

Wounded prey over-attend to predator cues—hearing danger in every rustling leaf. Attentional bias toward threat is adaptive post-trauma: false alarms cost foraging time, but missed predators cost life. Deer in high-predation areas spend 60% more time scanning versus foraging compared to low-predation populations—hypervigilance becomes default state. Birds exposed to mobbing calls show heightened alarm responses for days afterward, even to neutral stimuli. Vervet monkeys that survived leopard attacks show sustained startle responses to leopard alarm calls months later, while snake-alarm survivors show snake-specific bias. The trade-off: chronic hypervigilance reduces foraging efficiency by 30-40%, increases stress hormone levels, and shortens lifespan—but the alternative (inattention) means immediate death. Survivorship bias shapes attention: what killed your ancestors dominates your attentional landscape, whether or not it's the most probable current threat.