Effects of anxiety on handgun shooting behavior of police officers: A pilot study

A. Nieuwenhuys, R.R.D. Oudejans

    Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    The current pilot study aimed at providing an initial assessment of how anxiety influences police officers' shooting behavior. Seven police officers participated and completed an identical shooting exercise under two experimental conditions: low anxiety, against a non-threatening opponent, and high anxiety (HA), against a threatening opponent who occasionally shot back using colored soap cartridges. Measurements included shooting accuracy, movement times, head/body orientation, and blink behavior. Results showed that under HA, shooting accuracy decreased. Underlying this degradation of performance, participants acted faster and made themselves smaller to reduce the chance of being hit. Furthermore, they blinked more often, leading to increases in the amount of time participants had their eyes closed. Findings provide support for attentional control theory, hereby also pointing to possible interventions to improve police officers' shooting performance under pressure. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)225-233
    JournalAnxiety, Stress & Coping
    Volume23
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2010

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