Weapons Effect

Abstract

This entry summarizes research on the weapons effect, in which short‐term exposure to weapons or weapon images instigates aggressive cognitive and behavioral responses. This is a phenomenon that has been studied and debated for several decades. In that time, questions about the replicability and ultimately the validity of the weapons effect have been asked, especially in the context of recent meta‐analytic research. Noteworthy recent experiments purporting to demonstrate the weapons effect using ecologically valid measures and settings will also be examined.