Study -- Holding a gun makes you think others are too

[ToddG]

It wasn't until I was relating this experience to my current roommate that I realized that I didn't own that Fiero for another year and a half. I was driving a red Porsche at the time, not a gold Fiero.

Wow, what a story!

Minus the part where you went from having a Porsche to driving a go-kart, of course.

edited to add: I think I've mentioned this story before in another thread, but I once had a student in a FOF/Simunition scenario suffer a malfunction in his SIG, then pick up a revolver that was conveniently placed nearby. He had absolutely no recollection of the malf or ever firing the revolver... he was absolutely convinced he'd done the whole scenario with his SIG until we showed him the video afterwards.

[The Dreaming Tree]

Wow, what a story!

Minus the part where you went from having a Porsche to driving a go-kart, of course.

edited to add: I think I've mentioned this story before in another thread, but I once had a student in a FOF/Simunition scenario suffer a malfunction in his SIG, then pick up a revolver that was conveniently placed nearby. He had absolutely no recollection of the malf or ever firing the revolver... he was absolutely convinced he'd done the whole scenario with his SIG until we showed him the video afterwards.

Memory is a fascinating (read: terrifying) thing. Most people have this belief it's simply a "insert tape, rewind, play"-type of function, but we've discovered it's a full mental reconstruction of the events.

Even flashbulb phenomena, like 9/11. They asked thousands of people where they were, who they were with, etc. Many of those interviewed mentioned people who weren't even there that day, but their mind assumed it so, and they had no idea why they could recall "discussing" it with them, in real time.

[MikeO]

Over the years I have accumulated numerous memories that are faulty. Times, people, places, and activities that I know can't match. I remember doing something w someone somewhere listening to a song. Problem is I had not met them yet, learned to do that, and the song hadn't come out yet. But it's there.

Pretty sure about what I had for breakfast yesterday, but who knows...

Memory can be suppressed; looks like it can be created too.

I remember an accident where a responding patrol car t-boned a car at an intersection. Numerous witnesses said the patrol car did not have it's lights on. Forensics and video from a nearby parking lot showed they were on. Those six (6) witnesses were still sure they were not, even after they were shown the video.

Related to when all you have is a hammer, all your problems look like nails and get hammered? If you have a gun and pepper, you use the pepper. If all you have is the gun, you use the gun, even if it's not necessary?

[David Armstrong]

The time that I got out of my car and the creepy dude rushed me, I absolutely remember picking the can of pepper spray and the cell phone off the tan cloth seat of my gold Fiero. I remember the way the car smelled, I remember sliding the "t-handle" shifter into park, I remember seeing the guy in the driver's side mirror of the Fiero, closing the fairly thick and heavy Pontiac door...

It wasn't until I was relating this experience to my current roommate that I realized that I didn't own that Fiero for another year and a half. I was driving a red Porsche at the time, not a gold Fiero. Lord only knows why my memory has dubbed that in; it's why I doubt the memory that I was actually starting to pull the trigger. My rational mind now knows that early-1995 me didn't have anywhere near that kind of trigger control, because early 2012 me sure doesn't.

Eyewitness testimony blows. While I'm feeling pretty confident about the central details, my mind has obviously been cheerfully painting in the peripheral vision stuff for the last seventeen years.

Amen, as the preacher says. Eyewitness testimony, even our own, is full of problems and test after test has shown that. I think it was John Farnam who related that after one of the first NTI's pretty much everyone said they had shot the stages from a Weaver stance, but then the video showed some sort of Iso/crouch was by far the most common.

I think I've already related here one of my most intersting shooting investigations where the officer clearly described the BG pulling out a chrome 1911 and shooting him with it when in reality the BG had stabbed the officer.

[Serenity]

There is a really interesting article about memory in the March "Wired" magazine. If you don't have time to read the entire thing, scroll down to the section that begins with "Once you start questioning..." in bold. The author explores the creation and retrieval of memories, and why eyewitnesses are fallible (we all know why they are, but why?).

[peterb]

Just been listening to the audiobook of "Blink" by Malcom Gladwell. The section on "priming" is a good fit with this study. It doesn't take much to shift our perceptions and behavior.