TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2011//
TI  - "It's time to take a stand": Depicting crosshairs can indeed promote violence
JO  - Perception
A1  - Schoormans, Jan P. L.
A1  - Carbon, Claus-Christian
A1  - Gattol, Valentin
SP  - 371
EP  - 372
VL  - 40
IS  - 3
N2  - There is abundant evidence that people derive meaning from signs (Krippendorff, 1989 Design Issues 5 9-39) and that signs influence attitudes (Landau et al, 2010 Psychological Bulletin 136 1045 - 1067). We put to a test whether the use of crosshairs in a map can be viewed as representing violence. In a fictive scenario describing a plague of foxes, members of a Dutch household panel were confronted with a map that showed inflicted areas either by crosshairs or by neutral markers (plain circles). Respondents indicated the extent to which they favoured two solutions: killing-by-shooting or capturing-and-relocating. The results show that crosshairs indeed shape people's attitudes more towards the violent solution of shooting the foxes. Therefore, especially when used in heated public debates, the possibly violence-inducing effect of such visual metaphors should not be underestimated.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0301-0066
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -