Testosterone Spikes After Handling a Gun, Making Men More Aggressive

[RedEarth]

July 28, 2006 -- Handling a gun makes men's testosterone levels rise -- and makes them more aggressive. The finding comes from a study by psychology student Jennifer Klinesmith and her professors at Knox College, Galesburg, Ill. Klinesmith designed the study, in which 18- to 22-year-old college men participated.

Klinesmith told the men they'd be taking part in a study of the effect of attention to detail on taste sensitivity. She collected a saliva sample for testosterone testing. Then she led each man into a room where he sat at a table with an object on it. The man had to take apart the object and put it back together according to instructions.

For half the men, the object was a pellet gun that mimicked a Desert Eagle automatic handgun. The other half of the men worked with a child's game called Mouse Trap.

Fifteen minutes later, the men gave another saliva sample. Then they were asked to taste a lidded 3-ounce cup of water with a drop of Frank's Red Hot Sauce in it.

.....

"Such findings raise many of the usual questions about whether the presence of guns in modern society contributes to violent behavior," Klinesmith and colleagues conclude. "Although our study is clearly far from definitive, its results suggest that guns may indeed increase aggressiveness partially via changes in the hormone testosterone."

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/125/116082?printing=true

[benburch]

1. Hmmm...

...never noticed that it makes me feel any more aggressive.

Probably spikes my fear hormones since dangerous machines scare me.

[Tesha]

2. Happiness really *IS* a warm gun, ehh? (NT)

[panader0]

3. What's with the hot sauce?

[RedEarth]

5. The article explains what they do with the hot sauce

[Dora]

6. It's at the link....

They used the hot sauce as a way to measure aggression levels. Fascinating.

[whistle]

10. That would measure the degree of aggressiveness associated with

...rises in testosterine levels I would think. I remember the classic psychological experiment regarding anonymous aggression and torture that allowed subjects to administer electric shocks.

<snip>

World as Laboratory: Experiments With Mice, Mazes and Men
Book Review

By Michael O'Donnell

December 13, 2005

In perhaps the most famous psychological experiment of modern times, Stanley Milgram proved that most of us are no better than Nazis. In 1961 the Yale psychologist divided pairs of paid volunteers into test-takers and shock therapists; each wrong answer from the former earned an electric shock by the latter, who could hear but could not see his partner in an adjoining room.

The test-takers were never actually shocked, but were directed to scream and plead as the shock therapists -- ordered to proceed by an authoritative psychologist -- thought they were administering near-lethal zaps. Two-thirds of participants dumbly obeyed the white coat even though they thought they were practically killing an innocent stranger.

The American Psychological Association, appalled at the experiment's effects on participants, stripped Milgram of his membership, but he nonetheless earned a place in history: He later analyzed the My Lai massacre and his name has surfaced repeatedly in discussions of torture at Abu Ghraib.

The Milgram experiments were the pinnacle of decades of research into social control and human engineering driven by the "behaviorist" school of psychology. Born at the University of Chicago in the first years of the 20th century, behaviorism posited that human actions are unaffected by free will or consciousness, and instead may be empirically predicted, recorded and shaped by external stimuli. Just as a plant turns toward the sun, a frustrated human lashes out aggressively; the plant can be conditioned by its orientation to light, as can the human by modifying his level of frustration. Or by giving stern orders, as Milgram dismayingly proved.

<more>
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=O'20051213&articleId=1481

[Democrats_win]

4. Interesting. Wonder if people suspected this like smoking & cancer.

[whistle]

7. Isn’t psychology wonderful!

..... I wonder what would happen with women if given this same experimental study?

[Mojorabbit]

14. I was going to say the same thing

I am a woman and a gun collector and target shooter. I don't feel any different before, during, or after handling a gun.

[whistle]

16. Right, but how would you as a woman spike the water with hot sauce

[mcscajun]

17. I have the same question...

...and I am also a gun owner. Don't go to the range as much as I should, but I don't recall feeling more aggressive afterward, either.

[Sinti]

8. Shouldn't it? It's not the tool, it's the thought behind it.

I mean, a gun is considered dangerous, therefore it would cause a rise in chemicals designed to cause a man to protect himself (hence, becoming somewhat more aggressive). Mousetrap (the game) on the other hand is kind of silly, therefore no rise in testosterone. How about if they used a chainsaw or something like that instead, do you think the testosterone levels would rise?

[Ezlivin]

9. Hey! Floyd Landis was "gunning" for the Tour de France title

I guess that means that his Herculean effort on stage 17 was the source of his elevated testosterone.

[deaniac21]

11. I've never seen a pellet gun that can mimic. I wonder if it can do

Howard Dean?

[Wickerman]

12. I smell an alibi for Floyd Landis here

What a timely finding - I can hear it now.

"Yeah, I went plinking after finishing the 16th stage. Going shooting always gives me such a high and, wow, I guess that's what spiked my testosterone!"


http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_4108294

[Marie26]

13. I wonder if that's true

for women as well?

[CountAllVotes]

15. doesn't surprise me

Makes a man feel like a "real man" I guess. I've seen this before - a man holding and fondling a gun like it was a sex organ almost. Sick? Yes. Unusual? No, I doubt it. A surge of testosterone? Very likely I'd suspect. :(

:kick:

[benEzra]

18. They used *Mouse Trap* as the control?

I'd suspect that would cause a decrease in testosterone. Should've used some other sort of nifty gadget--a high-end laptop PC, the latest uber-ipod, sit in a Porsche, to control both for the novelty angle, and to eliminate the "oh geez this is so boring" effect.

Winning at chess raises testosterone, too. So does, oh, running, weight lifting, bike riding, and watching NBA basketball.