Study: Holding a Gun Makes You Look Bigger and Stronger
- Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:00pm by
Liz Klimas
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People perceive those holding guns as physically bigger and stronger. (Photo: PLoS One)
One reason people may find an adversary holding a gun frightening — aside from the obvious reasons — is that they may physically appear bigger.
(Related: What does this new study reveal about those packing heat?)
A study out of the University of California-Los Angeles asked participants to estimate the size and muscular features of four men, but the participants would only see the hand and the object it held. When the object was a gun, the men were consistently labeled as bigger compared to when they held other objects.
“There’s nothing about the knowledge that gun powder makes lead bullets fly through the air at damage-causing speeds that should make you think that a gun-bearer is bigger or stronger, yet you do,” said Daniel Fessler, the lead author of the study and an associate professor of anthropology at UCLA, in a statement on the research. “Danger really does loom large — in our minds.”
The research is part of a larger project funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research to evaluate decision making in potentially violent situations. For this study in particular, researchers think an “unconscious mental mechanism” associates the potential adversary with size and strength based on how threatening they appear. They believe is mechanism left over from our ancestors and is not associated with any real correlation between the size of those who own guns or cultural factors.
The study had more than 600 participants look at four pictures of different hands, each holding a single object: a caulking gun, electric drill, large saw or handgun. Live Science points out nearly 500 of the participants were women and the average age was 34. Fessler said tools were used to “rule out the possibility that a simple link with traditionally masculine objects would explain intuitions that the weapon-holders were larger and stronger.” Participants were asked to estimate the size of each model, and were also shown images of men of different sizes and strengths and identified the one they felt best matched each hand model.
When participants saw hands holding guns, they estimated the size of the holder to be 17 percent larger than those holding other objects. The size and strength ranking based on objects held from largest/strongest to smallest/weakest is as follows: handgun, saw, electric drill and caulking gun.
The team also wanted to rule out the possibility that their results were in some way influenced by popular culture, so they conducted two other studies using less “macho” objects:
[...] a kitchen knife, a paint brush and a large, brightly colored toy squirt gun. In the initial round, a new group of 100 subjects was asked to evaluate the danger posed by each of the objects (which were presented alone, without hands holding them). They then were asked to pick the type of person most associated with the object: a child, a woman or a man.
(Image: PLoS One)
As you might expect, the knife was seen as the most threatening and was associated with a woman, followed by the paint brush associated with a man and squirt gun associated with a child. When shown images of these objects being held by a man, the one holding the knife was judged bigger than those holding the less harmful objects.
“It‘s not Dirty Harry’s or Rambo’s handgun — it’s just a kitchen knife, but it’s still deadly,” postdoctoral scholar Colin Holbrook said in the statement. “And our study subjects responded accordingly, estimating its holder to be bigger and stronger than the rest.”
Live Science reports researchers expecting these findings to someday have application in military strategies, but for now Fessler said more investigations are necessary to better understand how humans think in potentially aggressive situations.
The research was published in the April 11 edition of the journal PLoS One.
[H/T Huffington Post]
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Comments (109)
Mapache
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 10:43pmIt is commonly understood that when you are looking at the barrel of a gun held by a person who does not like you the size of the barrel appears to increase in size 10x……just saying.
Report Post »omgfolks
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 8:28pmWell of course it does, look at all those puny little cops who carry all that assault weaponary. Do you think they would act like Billy Bad Ass is they didn’t have enough fire power to drop an elephant? but seriously it is no the holding of the gun, it is the perception of feeling safe.
Report Post »pavepaws
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 9:40pmIt’s not the size of the gun, it’s how you use it.
Report Post »TantoRocks
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:23pmFrom personal experience I can tell you that it is hard to take your eye off the gun long enough to judge the size of the person pointing it at you. Maybe it gets easier each time; I will have to ask the researchers that question.
Report Post »@leftfighter
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 10:02pmIf this study is true, I must look like something between Giant Man and the Incredible Hulk.
Locked, cocked, and ready to rock.
Report Post »oldguy49
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 11:54pmhope our tax dollars did not pay for this study…………just walk down to harlem on sat nite at 2 am and there are a lot of giants there
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 11:59pmThe Most Dangerous Person is… a Pretty, Naked, Girl… with a Gun — Brain Freeze, and you’r dead!
Report Post »MAMMY_NUNN
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 3:24amWasn’t the gun called “The Great Equalizer” ?
Report Post »Cesium
Posted on April 15, 2012 at 1:47pm@TANTOROCKS I don‘t think that parameter was assessed because I’m pretty sure the experiment was asking a specific question to willing participants
Report Post »bjornskis
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:11pmUniversity of California-Los Angeles need we go any further with this
Report Post »OlefromMN
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 10:02pmNope
Report Post »9111315
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 10:22pmJust approve the grant and send more cheques.
Report Post »colt1860
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 10:47pmThey forgot to repport that holding the gun sideways is perceived as being gangsta and one bad black mothahushyomouf.
Report Post »Wolf
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 8:22amCalifornia study… 5 of 6 respondents were women… from what background? Ghetto? ‘High’ society? Urban (and urbane)? How many different guns were used? All with six inch barrels (the revolver) or semi-autos (the M-9)? Totally biased study by the sound of it, got the results they were looking for, no need to go farther.
Report Post »Daveed
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:01pmI could have told you that for free!
Report Post »cgnick
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 11:25pmExactly. A gun is intimidating. An intimidated person is going to feel smaller. Remember that the firearm is the ultimate equalizer. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 6:05amRemember the Story… of the Bullet Holes in George Washington’s clothes… or how the Western Law Men looked at a man’s eyes in a Gun Fight! The LESSON is: Keep Thinking & Moving… and do not bother to look at the Gun!
Report Post »Brasil2520
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:00pmAnd wearing a hoody makes you look suspicious
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:10pmYeah, it does. Caught my attention and a watchful eye quite often when I was a cop.
Report Post »Master.Debater
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:14pmWe‘re funding another study for that I’m sure.
Report Post »Brasil2520
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:50pmMaster Debater
That study was already done in Sanford, the conclusion to that study was, when walking around someones neighborhood, a neighborhood know for past crime with black males, just show your hands and say where your going simple, but running and fighting – result – drama.
Report Post »http://www.newnation.org/NNN-Black-on-White.html
ChuckSammich
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 9:11amBrasil-
Report Post »I have personally found the opposite to be true in application. Make eye contact, leave your strong arm/hand out of view and keep them wondering. Make a thug pause, and they get really confused and figure you are not worth the unknown trouble.
Meyvn
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:54pmmeh
Report Post »Paul
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:53pmI‘m buyin’ a Tank!
Wonder if they have a study for that…
Report Post »Teabunny
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:21pmsee prior posts! (kidding! thats a myth!)
Report Post »CatB
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:45pmLOL ..that is why this woman would NEVER carry one of those pink guns they are selling .. I want them to ‘see” tank when they look at the gun .. not lipstick.
Report Post »colt1860
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:50pm…No wonder a Government run amok is fearful of an armed citizenry.
Report Post »david3755
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:43pmI wonder how much government funds have been pissed away on studies like this? No wonder people graduating from college these days can not find a job.
Report Post »teamarcheson
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:47pmIf you have a gun too, you both look equal. A gun in the hands of an 80 year old makes him as strong and big as n 18 year old with a club. Samuel Colt use to say the his handguns were equalizers and they are.
Report Post »alpha2omega47
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:34pmA man with a gun is a citizen. A man without a gun is a subject.
Report Post »GhostOfJefferson
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:38pmAmen.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:48pmIndeed and amen.
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:09pmHow odd, during a commercial I started flipping through the channels and stopped on BSNBC for a potential laugh. Rachel Madcow is whining about gun violence right now. Waiting for her to come to her punchline….oh, there it is Mitt Romney speaking for the NRA. Geez! This woman looks like she just had a stroke! Yep, she is twisting his words. In my opinion she is looking like the fool she is trying to make Romney seem. Cannot take any more of this, changing channels again. Whew….toilet paper commercial….what a relief. BSNBC going after guns again, nothing new here.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:48pmMaddow just looks more and more like Ron Reagan (the junior, former balerina and idiotic Reagan) .. I wonder .. ya think … are they one in the same? ;-)
Report Post »FreedomPurveyor
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:34pmWhy do they insist on conducting these absurd studies?
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:34pmI’m a fat woman. I don’t need to be perceived to be any bigger than I am. Screw it. I’ll open carry anyway.
Report Post »GhostOfJefferson
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:39pmRight on. Same here. Except I’m not a woman, nor overweight. :)
I love finding open carriers. Slainte!
Report Post »Northerner
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:37pmFunny, this is so true. However what’s even funnier are the anti-gun liberals that feel even bigger when they feel they have to approach me with their opinions when I am openly carrying my Glock.
Report Post »kaydeebeau
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:56pmI’m a tiny woman…all the more reason why I have a carry permit and never leave home without it
Report Post »GhostOfJefferson
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 2:19amWhat is a “carry permit”? :)
Open carry is a right where I live.
Report Post »Mapache
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 9:28amLesbian and fat woman are redundant.
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 10:04am@ Mapache:
I’ll be sure to tell Ellen DeGeneres you said that. You know, when I see her at the next meeting of the Homosexual Agenda.
@ Ghost of Jefferson:
Lots of states are, indeed, hopping on the Constitutional carry bandwagon, but most still impermissibly infringe our rights by requiring permits to exercise them. In Indiana, you need a permit to carry outside of your own property. In Kentucky, you only need a permit to carry CONCEALED outside of your own property, open carry outside of your own property there being inherently lawful.
And in four states: AK, AZ, VT, and WY, you can carry outside your own property open or concealed and still be lawful. Just a few years ago, pre-Heller/McDonald, that list was much shorter. In a few more years, I expect that list to be longer.
Report Post »PIL
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 11:22pmYou know LPHP, today I took a girl shooting, she’s never shot a gun before, so I was happy to introduce her to the joys of the Second Amendment. I’m not a feminist, but I do believe a woman should be able to take care of herself like you do. Stay safe and happy hunting.
Report Post »libertarians4freedom.blogspot.com
flsnipe
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:32pmWhat do you exspect from an organisation that calls a weapon a gun. Some Officer at the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research will use this a bullets on his/her OER. No big Surprise here.
Report Post »marine249
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 10:29pmas we use to say in boot camp, with your rifle in right hand and your gun in you left hand
Report Post »“this is my rifle it is for shooting’
‘this is my gun it is for fun’
lukerw
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 5:58amIf you are looking at the pointy end of someone else’s gun… you’r Toast!
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:32pmI know all this stuff is making me earth-shaken mad.
Report Post »GhostOfJefferson
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:38pmI‘m 6’3″ tall, 235 pounds, lean and lift weights. I can’t imagine what my full sized Colt Series 80 1991A1 (1911A1) must make me look like, since I open carry daily (not a cop). No wonder men run from me and women swoon and flirt with me nonstop! :)
Report Post »Polarized America
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:43pmAwwww…come on Tim ..you’re old enough to remember that this whole;e thing started with sticks and stones
Report Post »PoPoN.C.
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:59pmNice. I am a cop and I tell everyone i meet that they need to carry. Makes my job easier. Less reports i have to do for assualt and robberies. I am here to keep the peace and enforce and protect our Constitution. So please people, if you dont have a gun or you have one but dont carry it, START!!!
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:21pmGHOSTOFJEFFERSON, I miss my Series 80 M1911A1. Picked up the Combat Elite at the Heilbronn Rod & Gun Club back in late ‘86. Ordered a Wilson Combat catalog the next day and picked up their extended collet, hard baller barrel, full length travel rod, spring set, Pachmayer extended beaver tail, back strap both in stainless to go with the stainless receiver, Pachmayer stainless mags with bumpers, and the Wilson shock buffs to reduce metal to metal contact on the recoil. Sweet tack driver. Left it at my parents house while I was at a nearby military installation and it was stolen during a day time break in. The guy got nailed and was wearing my watch while trying to pawn items taken in a later break in. I still had the receipt for that watch in it‘s box from where I purchased it in Graf back in ’81. The serial number and his stupidity in the courtroom helped nail him and it was a three strikes and your out case. He’s still in jail with no chance of another parole. Still miss that pistol though.
Report Post »kaydeebeau
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 10:05pmTim, can’t you just find your own website and talk to yourself instead subjecting the rest of us to your drivle? Please???
Though I am grateful that you do tend to “talk” to yourself – makes it easier to scroll past you (as I am sure most others do also)
One (of many) suggestions, lay off the crack pipe, adopt English as a first language, find a good Rabbi to assist you with your OT references, find a good evangelical to assist with your NT references, take ritalin to assist with consolidating your random (un-inteliligble) rants, work on Rose-Ellen (has she been stoned – where has she been lately) she needs your “help” much more than the rest of us
Report Post »cous1933
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 10:24pmPopon.c.,
I’m with you. I’m also a cop and my son is too, and we are also both strong supporters of the Second Amendment. I never pass on an opportunity to educate other cops who have a hard time with people carrying guns. It doesn’t take much to expose how wrong they are on this issue.
Report Post »AmazingGrace8
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 3:23pm@kaydeebeau
For some reason I enjoy reading Tim’s posts and he reminds me of the crew-top-hair (not that weasel politicianTester,Mt) dead-pan-look-&-sharp wit-jokes) fellow that was on Hollywood Squares years ago, “Lonesome George”.
Report Post »Tim, I mean that with “terms-of-endearment-from-me”.
Ok….Remember the Alamo & Remember the Titantic’s 100 yr anniversay today.
Schteveo
Posted on April 16, 2012 at 12:43amPoponC,
you are one of FEW of the country’s LEOs who think that.
I‘ve had several LEOs ’question’ me about WHY I carry when I got stopped while driving.
When I took my CCH class the instructor, who helped write our NC CCH Law, said he spends a great deal of time arguing with his fellow LEOs about ‘just civilians’ carrying guns.
I salute your attitude, and thanks for your service Sir.
Report Post »TRILO
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:30pmAnd we wonder why our government is going broke! And the republicans cried the end of the world because defense spending was cut. If this is what our military is paying for we need to cut the budget even further.
I did not realize that airmen were in ground combat and needed to worry about looking bigger when holding a gun. I thought they had some pretty big guns attached to some pretty big airplanes. Maybe they were doing the study to give to the Marines (who do not need a gun to look big in my book) Oh well, what do I know other than this is an absolute waste of taxpayer money.
Report Post »ChuckSammich
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 9:07amTrollo-
Report Post »The AF has some of the best physical security in the world. They are in essence ground pounders. PJ’s are part of the best of the best too. AF used to have missile sites all over, and they don’t employ OWS types for some odd reason. Uncle blows ducks for every study under the sun-this may have practical applications and implications the standard troll couldn’t grasp, and what we see here is the watered down version. Go to your local range and try to make some decent friends.
100 Million Patriots Standing
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:30pmA similar study, if conducted, would theoretically show that persons in positions of power and authority, as in a political leader; President, Senator, Judge, Media Personality, Clergy Military, Law enforcement, and so forth would be perceived as more potent, more knowledgebale, more capable than the average observer.
We must guard against this bias and never give away our own strength and wisdom.
It’s all just a matter of perception, something akin to a magic trick or optical/psyc illusion of the false matrix; perhaps the key to why it is difficult to wake some people up to reality.and the dire situation this country is in.
100 Million Patriots Standing
Report Post »connect.freedomworks.org/node/79901
Robert999
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:24pmPlus, it makes a man think he’s got a bigger penis.
Report Post »GhostOfJefferson
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:05pmSo you’re under the impression that men think they have a penis 2“ to 5” long? Seriously? Because if so, I have a big surprise for you.
Good lord, even Freud rejects your idiocy, he called it hoplophobia.
Report Post »UpChuck.Liberals
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 10:12pmNo, that’s driving a big, jacked up pickup truck. It’s for the really insecure. A gun is just an equalizer for us old guys that can’t run anymore. Now, back to inventorying my ammo. Where was I, oh yeah , 45,750 ……..
Report Post »JohnLarson
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:23pmThe bigger the guns, the smaller the pen*is… to compensate.
Report Post »Master.Debater
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:50pmI carry a derringer.
Report Post »GhostOfJefferson
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:07pmHey John. Do you have a doctorate in psychology/psychiatry? If not, you’re a nimrod. Cheers.
Report Post »hatchetjob
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 9:37pmJOHNLARSON, I take it you speak from experience, the smallness and all.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 2:00amSo… all girls… carry Guns?
Report Post »AmazingGrace8
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 3:44pmNot in my world. In the early 70′s, I was driving along the coastline in Wa.state in the early morning hours. A car behind me was doing suspicious moves such as when I would speed up, this car would speed up, I would slow down for the car to pass, the car would slow down. No other vehicles on the road, about 3:00 a.m., heading back to Mt. from a vacation. My “manly” Marine/Nam Vet boyfriend & later on husband, was asleep in the back seat. When I told “my man” the situation, he said he was going to stay-down in the backseat & locked & loaded 357 mag (my boyfriend was 6′2″ & average weight) & told me to lean-over & get the derringer out of the glovebox. (I am 5′4 & average weight) but would rather have the 357 mag then a “whimpy” derringer. Came upon a stop sign..occupant of the car that was following me got out of his vehicle & was quickly moving towards my car and my boyfriend rose up from the back seat with the gun aiming right for the guy and boy did that guy high-tail it out of there. Big gun, little gun, woman alone…another man “my protector” in my vehicle….hummm
Report Post »kangaroo
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:20pmDoes this can of wasp spray make my azz look fat?
If you don’t know it sprays about 20ft and will take you out.
Report Post »rawmilker
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 10:29pmYea JOHNLARSON, sounds like he’s pretty sure of what he speaks…
Report Post »Gourdy
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:19pmNo, it pretty much makes you look like a guy driving a big 4 wheel drive pickup who works in an office (with those chrome nuts hanging off the bumper!).
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:18pmI think a paint-brush makes people look bigger, because it can be used to “Paint me in Birmingham.”
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:16pmWell there you have it, take guns away from Americans and they won’t look so tough after-all. Say, that reminds me of a comment made recently by an Egyptian Cleric. The…Air force wouldn’t be by chance doing studies for Egypt would it?
Report Post »THXll38
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:15pmI am telling you. There is nothing worse than being assaulted with a loaded caulk gun!
Report Post »Gourdy
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:20pmFreeze, or I’ll weatherize you.
Report Post »Schteveo
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:09pmI must look HUGE! I weigh over 350…AND I carry a pistol!!!
I gotta call Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, QUICKLY!
Report Post »THXll38
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:15pmIndeed you do.
Report Post »Black_Dynamite
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:07pmIs this serious?….The paint brush is what I fear the most because it reminds me that I have to paint my basement.
Leave it to the Air Force to conduct this study.
http://www.squidoo.com/5linx-from-a-to-z
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