What is it about?
We demonstrate that adolescents who see weapon violence or are victimized by weapon violence themselves are more likely to commit acts of violence with weapons in the future, but this is mainly true if they have developed the belief that weapon violence is normal and acceptable. This belief is more likely if they exhibited either callousness (a lack of guilt) or beliefs that aggressive retaliation is acceptable when someone has harmed you at an earlier age.
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Why is it important?
This work establishes that committing weapon violence is not a guaranteed outcome of weapon violence exposure, but that certain people may be more susceptible to this kind of observational learning or imitation of weapon violence. In addition, early interventions focused on remediating callousness or beliefs accepting of retaliation may be effective in disrupting this pattern of observational learning by inhibiting the belief that weapon violence is acceptable. Thus, this work has important implications for violence prevention and intervention initiatives.
Perspectives
As someone who volunteers their time to organizations dedicated to violence reduction, and who has heard heartbreaking stories from people whose lives have been affected by violence, this is an important topic to me personally. Writing this paper allowed me to use my research expertise and collaborations with co-authors to shed light on an important area that has gone under-researched – the specific reasons and mechanisms that can explain how weapon violence exposure leads to subsequent weapon violence.
Meagan Docherty
Bowling Green State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Normative beliefs approving of aggression moderate the observational learning of weapon use., Psychology of Violence, June 2025, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/vio0000599.
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