Stress and shooting of unarmed folks

Article on stress and training. Might be of interest to some.


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-90918-9.pdf
Perception during use of force and the likelihood of firing upon an unarmed person

Citation


Biggs AT, Hamilton JA, Jensen AE, Huffman GH, Suss J, Dunn TL, Sherwood S, Hirsch DA, Rhoton J, Kelly KR, Markwald RR. Sci. Rep. 2021; 11(1): 13313.

Haven't read it yet in detail, just saw it on a professional feed, so I thought I would share. Here's the abstract:

Perception during use offorce and thelikelihood offiring upon anunarmed personAdamT.Biggs1,2*, JosephA.Hamilton3, Andrew E.Jensen3, Greg H.Huffman3, JoelSuss4, Timothy L.Dunn3, SarahSherwood1, DaleA.Hirsch3, JaysonRhoton3, Karen R.Kelly3& Rachel R.Markwald3Stress 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 institutional 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.

Look forward to reading it.