The weapons effect

- The mere presence of weapons increases aggression-called the weapons effect.
- Weapons prime aggressive cognition.
- Weapons influence primary and secondary appraisal processes.
- The weapons effect is replicable both in the US and internationally, across student and non-student samples, and in both lab and field experiments.

In some societies, weapons are plentiful and highly visible. This review examines recent trends in research on the weapons effect, which is the finding that the mere presence of weapons can prime people to behave aggressively. The General Aggression Model provides a theoretical framework to explain why the weapons effect occurs. This model postulates that exposure to weapons increases aggressive thoughts and hostile appraisals, thus explaining why weapons facilitate aggressive behavior. Data from meta-analytic reviews are consistent with the General Aggression Model. These findings have important practical as well as theoretical implications. They suggest that the link between weapons and aggression is very strong in semantic memory, and that merely seeing a weapon can make people more aggressive.