@article{ref1,
title="Are target-shooters more aggressive than the general population?",
journal="Aggressive behavior",
year="2017",
author="Erle, Thorsten M. and Barth, Niklas and Kälke, Friederike and Duttler, Gabriel and Lange, Harald and Petko, Andreas and Topolinski, Sascha",
volume="43",
number="1",
pages="3-13",
abstract="Although psychological research shows that guns are aggressive cues, proponents of liberal gun control argue that people rather than guns are to blame for gun-related violence. For instance, athletic target-shooters might classify guns as athletic rather than aggressive stimuli and thus should not be more aggressive than the general population. The present work investigated aggression and emotion-regulation in target-shooters. A longitudinal study found that initial self-reported aggression in target-shooters was higher than in the general population and further increased over 1 year. Additionally, the sample exhibited deficient emotion-regulation strategies, and this was related to self-reported aggression. In contrast, their implicit self-construct became more peaceful over time but was unrelated to all other measures. Two further cross-sectional experiments explored the causal impact of athletic target-shooting and other athletic activities (shooting a basketball) on aggression. Target-shooters and basketball players were tested before and after their regular team practice and aggressive thoughts and feelings were measured. Target-shooting but not basketball practice activated aggressive and anxiety-related thought more strongly than positive thought. Future research avenues, implications for the indirect measurement of aggression, and possible interventions to decrease aggression in target-shooters are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 9999:1-11, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.<br><br>© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0096-140X",
doi="10.1002/ab.21657",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ab.21657"
}