Study: Carrying a gun can make you more paranoid

If you have a hammer everything looks like a nail. Does that well know phrase apply to carrying a gun? A study suggest that might be true.

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Study: Carrying a gun can make you more paranoid
Just picking up a gun suddenly make the world appear more violent, research suggests.


That's what researchers at University of Notre Dame have concluded after conducting a study to determine whether the simple act of wielding a gun alters the way people see the world. Previous studies have already suggested that visual perception can be highly subjective, depending on your attributes. For instance, it's been shown that people with broader shoulders tend to perceive doorways to be narrower, and softball players with higher batting averages perceive the ball to be bigger. However, can just picking up a gun suddenly make the world appear more violent?

To find out, the researchers subjected volunteers to a series of five experiments in which they were shown multiple images of people on a computer screen and determined whether the person was holding a gun or a neutral object such as a soda can or cell phone. Subjects did this while holding either a toy gun or a neutral object such as a foam ball.

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The researchers varied the situation in each experiment — such as having the people in the images sometimes wear ski masks, changing the race of the person in the image or changing the reaction subjects were to have when they judged the person in the image to hold a gun. Regardless of the situation, the study showed that responding with a gun created a bias in which observers reported a gun being present more often than they did responding with a ball. Thus, by virtue of affording the subject the opportunity to use a gun, he or she was more likely to classify objects in a scene as a gun and, as a result, to engage in threat-induced behavior, such as raising a firearm to shoot.

“Beliefs, expectations and emotions can all influence an observer’s ability to detect and to categorize objects as guns,” said James Brockmole, a professor of Psychology and a co-author of the study . “Now we know that a person’s ability to act in certain ways can bias their recognition of objects as well, and in dramatic ways. It seems that people have a hard time separating their thoughts about what they perceive and their thoughts about how they can or should act.”

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The researchers showed that the ability to act is a key factor in the effects by showing that while simply letting observers see a nearby gun didn't influence their behavior, holding and using the gun did.

“One reason we supposed that wielding a firearm might influence object categorization stems from previous research in this area, which argues that people perceive the spatial properties of their surrounding environment in terms of their ability to perform an intended action,” Brockmole said.

The study is detailed in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/study-carrying-a-gun-can-make-you-more-paranoid/

 

I believe it and met a few of them

 

Is this part of the weapons effect?

" 'The finger pulls the trigger,' says Leonard Berkowitz, an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin. 'But the trigger may also pull the finger. It's not just that having a gun is a convenient way of settling an argument. The weapon itself is a stimulant to violence.'

"Berkowitz has studied the 'weapons effect' for more than 40 years. 'There's no dispute,' he says. 'Even the sight of guns, which people think of as objects that can hurt others, can induce aggressive ideas. A weapon can function as a conditioned stimulus, eliciting both the thoughts and motor responses associated with its use.' "
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,134132,00.html

 

Right. The gun made him do it. What a load of malarkey.

 

The evidence for that gun owner paranoia can be seen in the posts in this forum.

The kneejerk reaction to every mass shooting is always the same. They accuse anyone looking to implement even the most sensible of regulations like background checks to be "GUN GRABBING".

That extreme response is based entirely on their own paranoia since no one is actually "grabbing" their guns or even attempting to do so.

 

Such Psychologists are biased liberals with a political agenda. Only one tiny step above Bigfoot hunters.

A better study might be for these psychologists themselves to wear blood pressure and other biometric monitors while they walk the streets of the most dangerous urban neighborhoods alone at night, both with and without a gun.

 

Ironic that you just confirmed the findings of the study about owning guns and paranoia!

 

That would imply the over 1 million police officers would all be paranoid over time at their work with a gun than without one.

 

Is Jesse Jackson a paranoiac? *HE* said he is relieved to find white people following him at night instead of black people!

Does *he* carry a gun?

 

The one thing they did not measure is actual reaction with the gun. Did the people try to shoot anyone? *THAT* would be the true test of this type of situation!

"Thus, by virtue of affording the subject the opportunity to use a gun, he or she was more likely to classify objects in a scene as a gun and, as a result, to engage in threat-induced behavior, such as raising a firearm to shoot."

This doesn't tell us if they actually shot. Nor does it tell us how the ones without a gun reacted. Did they shrink away or turn away when threatened? Fear and passiveness in the face of a real threat is a sure fire way to see the threat carried out!

 

Reads like a total bullshit study to me. I wish that I could read the actual study, instead of the author's view of it. I'd also wonder if holding the foam ball made the research subjects more aware of balls, or holding a cell phone made the subject more aware of cell phones. Doesn't read like variables were really being controlled for, again, based on the limited view of the study by the reporter. As I said, this read like a bullshit study meant to prove a point, not find the truth.

 

The study (well the story about the study) did not say anything about gun ownership, but about carrying a gun. I love the way you guys stretch the truth, you have great imaginations.

 

It just says that people holding a toy gun are more likely to see a gun. I don't view that as paranioia, I view it as the gun just priming them. I bet if people are carrying flowers they are also more likely to see flowers.

 

While driving a cab at night, when in college, I chose not to carry. Eliminating the gun option I thought would make me more aware of protecting myself via other means. So I suspect carrying has an impact on how you see your surroundings.

 

So are you more aware with or without the gun?

 

I felt you are more aware without the gun.

 

The weapons effect has been debunked for a while now. At least it was back in 2008 when I studied psychology. It only had an effect on people unfamiliar with firearms. On people who's been around firearms before, it had absolutely no effect.

 

I've carried so long that I completely forget that I have it. When leaving the house I grab my keys, wallet, pocket knife, phone, sunglasses, and carry gun. I never think twice about it, and it certainly doesn't change how I perceive my surroundings.

 

Which could only mean you've carried so long you're unaware of the effect.

 

This is just another biased study with the outcome stacked to the pseudo-scientist's favor.

If an honest person is around violent and savage people or animals, they should be allowed to carry a handgun to defend themselves. Just common sense. Not paranoia, it's called preparedness and common sense.

 

So your personal experiences refute the study. Thank you.

 

As a firearms instructor, I teach people to always exercise situational awareness. Weather they are carrying or not. I practice what I preach.

 

I'm not so sure. Thank you.

 

If the gun is removed as an option, I suspect the mind is going to operate differently.

 

It also removes the option of equalizing a force greater than the potential victim. This poor choice can result in injury or death. Happens every day.