Stroessner, Steven J.Scholer, Abigail A.Marx, David M.Weisz, Bradley M.2018-02-022018-02-022015-07-01http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2015.03.003http://hdl.handle.net/10012/12983The final publication is available at Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2015.03.003 © 2015. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Four experiments examined whether information implying imminent threat to safety would interact with regulatory focus (Higgins, 1997) to affect the utilization of threat-relevant stereotypes. Because information suggesting imminent danger is more relevant to the safety goals of prevention-focused individuals than the advancement goals of promotion-focused individuals, utilization of threat-relevant stereotypes was expected to increase under such conditions only under prevention focus. Support for this prediction was obtained in four distinct and socially important domains. Using scenarios describing a violent crime committed by an African-American male (Experiment 1) or a petty crime committed by an undocumented immigrant (Experiment 2), prevention-focused individuals made judgments consistent with stereotypes when threat was perceived to be high rather than low. In studies that manipulated the stereotypicality of the target in a terrorism scenario (Experiments 3 & 4), prevention-focused individuals were more likely to endorse scrutinizing a stereotypical compared with a non-stereotypical target when terrorism was described as an increasing problem. Implications for models of stereotyping, self-regulation, and responding to threat are discussed.enAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 InternationalRegulatory FocusSelf-RegulationSafety ThreatStereotypingArticle