Primed for Violence: The Weapons Effect and Racialized Aggression

• In Event: Partisan Violence and Incivility

Abstract

Longstanding research in political psychology shows that exposure to guns or images of guns increases aggressive thoughts and behaviors. This ‘weapons effect’ has been replicated over several decades, including in cross-national samples. However, little research has been done on whether the subject of the aggression matters. Following research on race and racism in America, I hypothesize that white Americans who have been primed with the weapons effect will be more aggressive and hostile toward Blacks than toward whites. I test this hypothesis by varying whether individuals have been primed with images of weapons, and whether they are given the opportunity to express aggression against a white or a Black individual in a hypothetical scenario. Additionally, I examine whether this effect varies depending on the participants’ racial attitudes. I find that the weapons effect does increase aggression toward Black (rather than white) hypothetical targets, but this effect is dependent on both participants' racial attitudes and the context of current events.

Author

• Brianna A. Smith, United States Naval Academy