Natural selection and the regulation of defenses: A signal detection analysis of the smoke detector principle.

By R. Nesse. 2005

372 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a3796060c86f13edcf4e2a6e2a8c6dc594d1c649

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Citations in the corpus

The Behavioral Immune System (and Why It Matters) (2011, background): “As with other systems designed for self-protection, this signaldetection problem is adaptively resolved in a manner defined by the ‘‘smoke detector principle’’ (Nesse, 2005).”
An integrative and functional framework for the study of animal emotion and mood (2010, background): “…upon the ideas of many other researchers of human and animal emotions (e.g. Lang et al. 1990; Cabanac 1992; Gray 1994; Panksepp 1998; Cacioppo et al. 1999; Russell & Barrett 1999; Watson et al. 1999; Nesse 2000, 2004, 2005; Carver 2001; Ellsworth & Scherer 2003; Rolls 2005; Nesse & Ellsworth 2009).”
The psychology of social dilemmas: A review. (2013, background): “An excellent example of costly-signaling is the escalation of cooperative behavior, in a process known as ‘‘runaway social selection’’ (Nesse, 2005) or ‘‘competitive altruism’’ (Barclay, 2004; Hardy & Van Vugt, 2006).”
The behavioral immune system: Current concerns and future directions (2018, background): “Evolved responses to such signal detection problems often rely on liberal identification criteria when targeting potential threats, what is known as the “smoke detector principle” (Haselton & Nettle, 2006; Nesse, 2005).”
Speaking up to prevent harm: A systematic review of the safety voice literature (2019, methodology): “Approaches from signal detection theory (Nesse, 2005) and game theory (Brown et al., 1999) have been applied to defensive responses such as fear, and utilising these approaches might prove useful to uncover costs and benefits of safety voice outcomes and potential optimum levels of safety voice.”
The Adaptive Calibration Model of stress responsivity (2010, neutral): “usually designed by natural selection to accept a high rate of false positives (the so-called “smoke detector principle”; Nesse, 2005).”
Pathogen-avoidance mechanisms and the stigmatization of obese people (2007, background): “An adaptive approach to the signal-detection problem suggests that inferential mechanisms evolved to be biased toward minimizing the more costly form of error, although this inevitably leads to an increase in the less costly form of error (Haselton & Nettle, 2006; Nesse, 2005).”
An Evolutionary Life History Framework for Psychopathology (2014, background): “The logic of the smoke detector principle can be employed to shed light on the etiology of emotional symptoms such as panic attacks, anxiety, and phobic symptoms (Nesse, 2005; Nesse & Jackson, 2006).”
Strategies for cooperation in biological markets, especially for humans (2013, background): “This is a classic case of risk management (a.k.a. signal detection, the “smoke-detector principle,” Nesse, 2005; “error management,” Haselton & Buss, 2000).”
Disgust: evolved function and structure. (2013, background): “…process that occurs should be tuned to reflect the costs of committing two possible errors: Type I (assuming a threat when none is actually present—a false alarm) and Type II (failing to detect a threat when one is present—a miss; Haselton & Nettle, 2006; Nesse, 2005; Tooby & Cosmides, 1990).”
The Paranoid Optimist: An Integrative Evolutionary Model of Cognitive Biases (2006, background): “Nesse (2001, 2005) argued for the smoke detector principle in bodily systems designed to protect from harm.”
The Behavioral Immune System: Implications for Social Cognition, Social Interaction, and Social Influence (2016, background): “Given these unequal costs, the appraisal of infection risk is likely to be biased in a predictable manner consistent with a “smoke detector principle” (Nesse, 2005) that applies to cue-based appraisal of dangers more generally.”
Renovating the Pyramid of Needs: Contemporary Extensions Built Upon Ancient Foundations (2010, positive): “When the risk of physical damage is highly costly, threat-avoidance systems are likely to be set like smoke alarms, favoring false positive alarms rather than false negative complacency (Haselton & Nettle, 2006; Nesse, 2005; Rozin & Royzman, 2001); it is better to unnecessarily flee a misperceived p”
The Origins of Specific Phobias: Influential Theories and Current Perspectives (2009, background): “Automatism is the fast, reflexive activation of defense responses, independent of the neocortex (Mineka & Öhman, 2002b), in a fast process (LeDoux, 1996; Smith, Cacioppo, Larsen, & Chartrand, 2003) that prefers to risk false positives than false negatives (Nesse, 2005).”