Study: Holding gun increases perception of threat

A Neighborhood Watch sign stands outside the gated The Retreat at Twin Lakes community March 20, 2012, in Sanford, Fla., where Trayvon Martin was shot by George Zimmerman while on Neighborhood Watch patrol. / Getty Images

(AP) NEW YORK - No one knows what led a Florida neighborhood watch captain to shoot Trayvon Martin, a teenager carrying no weapon.

But a new study raises an intriguing question: Could the watch captain have been fooled into thinking the youth was armed in part because he himself was holding a gun?

In the study, volunteers who held a toy gun and glimpsed fleeting images of people holding an object were biased toward thinking the object was a gun.

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It's another indication that the brain shapes what we perceive in the world beyond the information that comes in through our eyes, said James Brockmole of the University of Notre Dame, who did the work with psychologist Jessica Witt at Purdue University.

In a telephone interview, Brockmole stressed he had no inside information on the Feb. 26 shooting of 17-year-old Martin, who was shot and killed in a gated community in Sanford, a suburb of Orlando. The neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman, said he shot the teen in self-defense because the youth attacked him. The case has drawn outrage and protests, and the federal Department of Justice said Monday it will investigate.

Brockmole said it's possible that Zimmerman's perception might have been skewed by being armed.

Race may have also played a role. Martin is black; Zimmerman's family says he is Hispanic. Past research suggests that people can be more likely to perceive a poorly seen object as a gun if it's held by a black person than by a white person, experts say.

Zimmerman has not spoken publicly. The police report does not mention whether he thought Martin had a firearm. But during his patrol of the neighborhood in his SUV, Zimmerman called 911 and told a police dispatcher that he was following Martin. "We've had some break-ins my neighborhood. ...There is a really suspicious guy."

Then a bit later, he said the youth was approaching and "he's got something in his hands."

In the study which was carried out well before the shooting, undergraduates at Notre Dame and Purdue glimpsed scenes of people holding objects and had to decide quickly whether the object was a gun. The results showed they were biased toward thinking so if they themselves were holding a toy gun, rather than a plastic ball. Just having a gun nearby didn't make a difference, researchers found.

Why is that? Brockmole said people are primed to act in the world rather than just passively see it. So their minds have to contain information both about what they see and what they might do in response. Evidently, each kind of information can influence the other, he said.

He said the work, which is set to be published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, is not intended to support gun control. But he said it suggests that people should know that when they hold a gun "that might change how you're going to interpret what's around you."

Brockmole's findings make sense, said Evan Risko, who studies perception and attention at Arizona State University. "Our perception is influenced by a number of different factors, and that can have important consequences," he said.

Dennis Proffitt, who studies visual perception at the University of Virginia, said there are many reasons why one person might think another is armed, such as if he is worried about his own safety or if he thinks the other person is a robber. The effect of holding a gun oneself "could be part of the story" in Florida, he said.

[bebepweet]

I would agree that the situation in which Zimmerman found himself, he psychologically assumed the role of a policeman. He saw something and someone suspicious (rightly or wrongly), he reported his observations as a policeman might report them, he followed and observed a "suspect" (either correctly or incorrectly). I don't think having a gun had anything to do with his behavior. But I do think his "role playing" did.

[bebepweet]

Having a degree in behavioral science with 30 years experience, I would conclude this would also apply to any object one is holding. That if I am at a ballgame and buy a hotdog, I will suddenly feel that everyone else is also eating a hotdog.

[JRC_903]

I don't know if holding gun increases the perception that the holder is in danger.. But if you are not the holder..unarmed.. having a person holding or pointing a gun at you increases YOUR perception of danger--big time.. . One of the things one learns when they are young in in NH during the 60's is that you never threaten someone with a gun. You either do nothing, or you pull it up and snot to kill. Nothing in between.

[longtree-2009]

psychologists and their studies are a dime a dozen. most are full of horse manure, most become psychologists because they themselves are flawed. people buy into their supposed studies and their findings which are probably worked to prove what they want to prove in the first place. they only look at evidence to support their theory.

[Scimajor]

So, let me get this straight, being paranoid enough to carry a gun with you means that you're paranoid about people having guns? How much did they pay for that study?

[smittyc]

The story is way overblown. Baltimore had 29 murders in Jan Feb 2012. No public outcry from black leaders even though every single one of them was black. Detroit, Chicago, Trenton, DC, LA, NYC, are just as violent or more so and everybody knows who is involved. Again no public outrage by the black leaders. Even more interesting, these cities have the strictest gun laws in the nation. The media further insinuates this shooting is a white thing when both involved are other. A witness present stated both men were rolling around on the ground at his back door according to news reports.

[bobnjersey]

["Our perception is influenced by a number of different factors, and that can have important consequences," he said.]
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wow ... i'm glad this has been cleared up ... since nobody's really been sure about this for thousands of years now.

[verrz]

Pursuing suspects is a job for professional law enforcers, not neighborhood vigilantes. What has happened to common sense in American civic life?

[smittyc]

Police are like firefighters, they are first responders. Over the last decade as homeowners have armed themselves most communities have a story where a homeowner gun owner takes out a perp. Murder rate has gone down everywhere but the NE where stringent gun laws still exist.

[tibiaornottibia]

"most communities have a story where a homeowner gun owner takes out a perp."

or an innocent bystander, woman with child, young man walking home with a bag of Skittles.....

[Dreadnut]

"Studies show"........."experts say"...........

What next, Magic Eight Ball says?

[ajvw]

Study: Holding gun increases perception of threat

how much did we pay for this study?