TY  - JOUR
PY  - 1998//
TI  - Does the gun pull the trigger? automatic priming effects of weapon pictures and weapon names
JO  - Psychological science
A1  - Anderson, Craig A.
A1  - Benjamin, Arlin James
A1  - Bartholow, Bruce D.
SP  - 308
EP  - 314
VL  - 9
IS  - 4
N2  - More than 30 years ago, Berkowitz and LePage (1967) published the first study demonstrating that the mere presence of a weapon increases aggressive behavior. These results have been replicated in several contexts by several research teams. The standard explanation of this weapons effect on aggressive behavior involves priming; identification of a weapon is believed to automatically increase the accessibility of aggression-related thoughts. Two experiments using a word pronunciation task tested this hypothesis. Both experiments consisted of multiple trials in which a prime stimulus (weapon or nonweapon) was followed by a target word (aggressive or nonaggressive) that was to be read as quickly as possible. The prime stimuli were words in Experiment 1 and pictures in Experiment 2. Both experiments showed that the mere identification of a weapon primes aggression-related thoughts. A process model linking weapons as primes to aggressive behavior is discussed briefly.<p /> <p>Language: en</p> 
LA  - en
SN  - 0956-7976
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00061
ID  - ref1
ER  -