Mass shootings and the salience of guns as means of compensation for thwarted goals

Bibliographic Data

ID6200345
AuthorsN Pontus Leander (0000-0002-3073-5038, University of Groningen, corresponding author), Wolfgang Stroebe (0000-0003-2767-2838, University of Groningen), Jannis Kreienkamp (0000-0002-1831-5604, University of Groningen), Maximilian Agostini (0000-0001-6435-7621, University of Groningen), Ernestine Gordijn (0000-0002-8350-7135, University of Groningen), Arie W Kruglanski (0000-0002-4777-9299, University of Groningen)
Year2019
Volume116
Issue5
Pages704-723
Publication date2019-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1037/pspa0000150
PMID30855156
OpenAlexW2921952601
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited47

Between 2016 and 2017, Americans suffered 3 of the deadliest mass shootings in modern history by a lone gunman: the Orlando nightclub shooting, the Las Vegas strip shooting, and the Texas church shooting. We studied American gun owners in the wakes of these tragedies, theorizing that a byproduct of the salience of mass shootings is to increase the salience of guns as means of individual empowerment and significance. We hypothesized that this increase in salience would be especially relevant in the context of thwarted goals, because such individuals may be seeking a compensatory means to interact more effectively with their environment. In 4 studies of U.S. gun owners (N = 2,442), we tested whether mass shooting salience interacted with thwarted goals to predict justification to shoot suspected criminals, as well as ideas about armed vigilantism and perceptions that guns are means of empowerment. The thwarting of goals was either experimentally induced via failure on an achievement task (Study 1), or measured via perceptions of disempowerment in society (Studies 2-4). Mass shooting salience was measured via perceptions of mass shooting threat, as well as temporal proximity and social proximity to specific mass shooting events. Across studies, results indicated an interaction between thwarted goals and mass shooting salience; temporal proximity yielded mixed results. Altogether, thwarted goals motivate people to seek effectiveness and mattering, and guns are more likely to be perceived as means to such ends when mass shootings loom large in the mind. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

Cognitive psychology · Compensation (psychology) · Medical emergency · Poison control · Salience (neuroscience) · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Gun Ownership and Violence Research · Psychology · Social Psychology · Suicide and Self-Harm Studies

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