I propose that a perceptual delay exists between the actual present moment and the first moment that any perception of any event can occur. Because perception is delayed, there is a chronic need, shared with all ambulatory organisms, to respond quickly to unusual or threatening events in the environment. Thus, the perceptual delay creates an ongoing threat to predictability. In general, social objects are threatening and cue the threat to predictability. A number of social psychological phenomena are drawn together to show that perceptual delay and the threat to predictability may provide, in part, a motivational explanation for their effects. Two experiments, one a stereotyping experiment, the other a hindsight bias study, tested the theory's predictions. Results indicated that false slow (compared to accurate) reaction-time feedback caused an increase in the use of a gender stereotype and increased hindsight bias. Results for a measure of optimism as an indicator of the level of a threat to predictability were mixed. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the meaning of a perceptual delay more generally, a motivational approach to a number of psychological phenomena, and the role that optimistic affect might play in these effects.