I changed terminology from “the ‘thinking of a conspecific’ flag” to “the social attention reflex”. I think the new term has better connotations, especially the way it invokes a parallel to “orienting reflex” and “startle reflex”, which likewise are associated with fast, transient, and involuntary changes in both attention and other innate signals like pleasure and arousal.
(Update April 2026: I’ve refined my model a bit: I now think of anxiety-related involuntary attention as being more closely analogous to the famous orienting reflex wherein people turn to look at an unexpected loud sound or motion. Traditional orienting reflexes involve involuntary attention towards exteroceptive inputs, coupled with innate motor commands, physiological arousal, etc. By analogy, if you’re anxious, then (I claim) you’ll likewise experience sporadic interoceptive “orienting reflexes” that involve involuntary attention towards the the feeling of anxiety, coupled with a synchronized squirt of negative valence and displeasure (see Appendix A), plus physiological arousal etc. These interoceptive “orienting reflexes” might occur multiple times per second for intense anxiety, or less often for milder anxiety. I’m using anxiety as an example, but the same idea obviously applies as well to fear, hunger, itches, etc.)
I revised 2 old posts based on deeper appreciation for the orienting reflex as exemplifying a broader neuroscience motif:
(1) In Neuroscience of human social instincts: a sketch (2024):
(2) In Valence series §3.3.5 (2023):
Thanks @Lucius Bushnaq , @Linda Linsefors , and @philh for asking tough questions :)