Perception during use of force and the likelihood of firing upon an unarmed person

Stress can impact perception, especially during use-of-force. Research efforts can thus advance both theory and practice by examining how perception during use-of-force might drive behavior. The current study explored the relationship between perceptual judgments and performance during novel close-c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Scientific reports Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 13313
Main Authors:	Biggs, Adam T., Hamilton, Joseph A., Jensen, Andrew E., Huffman, Greg H., Suss, Joel, Dunn, Timothy L., Sherwood, Sarah, Hirsch, Dale A., Rhoton, Jayson, Kelly, Karen R., Markwald, Rachel R.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London Nature Publishing Group UK 25-06-2021 Nature Publishing Group Nature Portfolio
Subjects:	631/378/1831 692/53/2423 Humanities and Social Sciences Inoculation Military training multidisciplinary Perception Science Science (multidisciplinary) Training
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Stress can impact perception, especially during use-of-force. Research efforts can thus advance both theory and practice by examining how perception during use-of-force might drive behavior. The current study explored the relationship between perceptual judgments and performance during novel close-combat training. Analyses included perceptual judgments from close-combat assessments conducted pre-training and post-training that required realistic use-of-force decisions in addition to an artificially construed stress-inoculation event used as a training exercise. Participants demonstrated significant reductions in situational awareness while under direct fire, which correlated to increased physiological stress. The initial likelihood of firing upon an unarmed person predicted the perceptual shortcomings of later stress-inoculation training. Subsequently, likelihood of firing upon an unarmed person was reduced following the stress-inoculation training. These preliminary findings have several implications for low or zero-cost solutions that might help trainers identify individuals who are underprepared for field responsibilities.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	2045-2322 2045-2322
DOI:	10.1038/s41598-021-90918-9