Passion for guns and beliefs in a dangerous world: An examination of defensive gun ownership.

This research examines the notion of defensive gun ownership using the Dualistic Model of Passion. We hypothesized that an obsessive (vs. harmonious) passion for guns would be associated with a belief in a dangerous world (BDW). We expected this relationship to intensify in threatening contexts, leading to a more expansive view on defensive gun ownership. We tested this hypothesis across three threat contexts: a gun-control message (Study 1, N = 342), a live shooting simulation (Study 2, N = 398), and the aftermath of the Christchurch mass shootings (Study 3, N = 314). In the experimental Study 1, exposure to a gun-control message increased the intention to purchase guns among those with an obsessive passion (OP) for guns. Study 2 revealed that BDW mediated the relationship between OP and assertive modes of protection, the desire to purchase high-stopping-power guns, and anti-Black racial bias in a shooting task. Study 3 showed that knowledge of the Christchurch attack intensified the link between OP and BDW, leading to increased support for gun access, a willingness to act as a citizen-protector, and prejudice against Muslims. Comprehending these dynamics can assist policymakers in crafting messaging campaigns for firearm regulation and public safety measures that are more effective.

Children's risk assessment in street crossing using virtual reality.

INTRODUCTION: Crossing streets represents a risky task for children where they have to assess both the probability and harm severity of being hit by a vehicle. To cross streets safely, children must perceive and interpret the traffic environment and scale their movements to the flow of traffic. Their ability to gather information about the surrounding environment through visual search strategies is essential in this process. This study aimed to explore children's street crossing behaviors and to identify successful risk-assessment strategies. METHOD: Virtual reality (VR) with built-in eye tracking was used for this investigation; 55 children between 7 and 10 years old completed six street crossing tasks with varying complexity and difficulty. RESULTS: Varying competencies in street crossing were demonstrated among the children. Those who crossed safely looked to the left and right more often to check for traffic and spent more time assessing the traffic environment by following oncoming vehicles with their gaze before crossing than those who crossed dangerously. No apparent differences between children who crossed safely and those who crossed dangerously were found while crossing. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that dangerous street crossings were, on different levels, related to assessment time before crossing, visual search strategies during assessment time, and the tasks harm severity and probability risk. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Future research could suggestively include indicators such as assessment time and visual search strategies, and tasks could discern harm severity and probability risk. These indicators might also be considered for training programs aiming to enhance children's pedestrian safety.

Spanish adaptation and validation of the Dula Dangerous Driving Index (DDDI).

The Dula Dangerous Driving Index (DDDI) is a widely used questionnaire that measures the tendency to drive dangerously on the road through three different types of behaviors: aggressive driving, risky driving, and experiencing negative emotions while driving. This study aimed to develop a Spanish version of the DDDI and verify the reliability and validity of this questionnaire in the Spanish population. A community sample of 2174 Spanish participants (51.1% male; age range: 18-79 years) completed the 28-item Spanish version of the DDDI. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that a three-factor model fitted adequately to the data. Analysis of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity showed that the Spanish adaptation of the DDDI had good psychometric properties and retains the theoretical consistency of the original scale. Gender and age differences were observed. The Spanish version of the DDDI can be considered a good instrument for assessing dangerous driving behavior, thus contributing to the cross-cultural study of these types of behaviors and the possible development of intervention programs aimed at reducing road traffic accidents.

Study on driver's active emergency response in dangerous traffic scenes based on driving simulator.

OBJECTIVE: A driver's active emergency response in dangerous traffic scenes consists of two parts, including reaction behavior and physiological state. In dangerous traffic scenes, the driver's active emergency response has an important impact on human collision injury. Clarifying the driver's active emergency response is an important prerequisite for the study of human collision injury under nonstandard posture. Therefore, this study investigates the driver's active emergency response in different inevitable collision scenes using driving simulator. METHODS: A driving simulator with a high-speed camera system and human physiological signal acquisition system was first built. Then, three typical vehicle dangerous collision scenes were developed, including frontal collision, side collision, and rear-end collision. Finally, twenty participants (15 males and 5 females) were recruited for a driving experiment, and their active emergency responses were recorded and analyzed. RESULTS: All subjects would rotate the steering wheel to the left or right in the active emergency state, and the rotation of the hand would also cause the subject's upper body to tilt in the same direction. The maximum angle for male subjects to rotate the steering wheel was 59.98°, while for the female subjects, it was 44.28°. In addition, the maximum grip force between the male subjects and the steering wheel was 280.5 N, compared to 192.5 N for female subjects. Compared to the female participants, the male participants not only have a greater rotation angle and a greater grip force on the steering wheel, but also have greater pressure on the brake pedal, and the foot moves quickly from the accelerator pedal to the brake pedal and presses the brake pedal. CONCLUSIONS: Drivers have different active emergency responses to different vehicle collision scenes. Quantitative statistics of driver's active emergency response will have important guiding significance for the analysis of the impact of human active emergency response on human injury characteristics in subsequent vehicle collision experiments.

Who might encounter hard-braking while speeding? Analysis for regular speeders using low-frequency taxi trajectories on arterial roads and explainable AI.

Regular speeders are those who commit speeding recidivism during a period. Among their speeding behaviors, some occurring in specific scenarios may cause more hazards to road users. Therefore, there is a need to evaluate the driving risks if the regular speeders have different speeding propensities. This study considers speeding-related hard-braking events (SHEs) as a safety surrogate measure and recognizes the regular speeders who encounter at least one SHEs during the study period as risky individuals. To identify speeding behaviors and hard-braking events from low-frequency GPS trajectories, we compare the average travel speed between pairwise adjacent GPS points to the posted speed limit and examine the speed curve and the corresponding travel distance between these GPS points, respectively. Thereafter, a logistic model, XGBoost, and three 1D Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) including AlexNet CNN, Mini-AlexNet CNN, and Simple CNN are respectively developed to recognize the regular speeders who encountered SHEs based on their speeding propensities. The proposed Mini-AlexNet CNN achieves a global F1-score of 91% and recall of 90% on the testing data, which are superior to other models. Further, the study uses the Shapley Additive exPlanation (SHAP) framework to visually interpret the contribution of speeding propensities on SHE likelihood. It is found that speeding by 50% or greater for no more than 285 m is the most dangerous kind among all the speeding behaviors. Speeding on roads without bicycle lanes or on roads with roadside parking and excessive accesses increases the probability of encountering SHEs. Based on the analyses, we put forward tailored recommendations that aim to restrict hazard-related speeding behaviors rather than speeding behaviors of all kinds.

The short-term impact of a referendum on motor vehicle collisions casualties.

OBJECTIVE: A referendum took place in Greece on the 5th of July 2015 to decide whether the suggested bailout would be accepted. Since this was the first one since 1974, the period between the referendum and the subsequent national elections was characterized by increased uncertainty and had spillover effects in many aspects of everyday life. We take advantage of this quasi-experiment to investigate the short-term impact of the referendum on vehicle collisions casualties. METHODS: We use data from the daily number of injuries and fatalities caused by vehicle collisions in 2015 and employ a difference-in-differences approach, comparing trends before and after the referendum. RESULTS: We reveal that the referendum had a short-term impact on road traffic casualties (4.14 more casualties per day), compared to what would have been expected in the absence of the referendum. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides evidence that negative emotions and anxiety, due to uncertainty, could promote dangerous driving behavior. Preventive and traffic control measures may need to be considered by policy makers during periods of uncertainty.

Key Factors in Crane-Related Occupational Accidents in the Spanish Construction Industry (2012-2021).

The construction industry is one of the riskiest sectors worldwide, with crane operations being one of the most dangerous activities. The aim of this study was to gain insight into the key factors involved in crane-related occupational accidents in the construction industry in Spain. To this end, 1314 accidents involving cranes were analyzed from a total of 241,937 accidents that occurred in the construction of buildings. The data were collected from the Spanish government's occupational accident statistics corresponding to the years 2012-2021. The results evidenced a statistically significant relationship between cranes as the material agent and the size of the company, with 95% of cases corresponding to small- or medium-sized companies (less than 250 employees). Additionally, it shows how the crane operator is identified as a material contributor to crane accidents in the construction industry, and may be considered a key component to these accidents. In conclusion, improving the knowledge gained about the key factors in crane-related accidents at work in the construction industry provides essential information that helps to design and implement appropriate preventive measures to avoid the recurrence of unwanted events with these machines.

Motor inhibition impacts the motor interference effect of dangerous objects based on a prime-target grasping consistency judgment task.

Whether motor inhibition impacts the motor interference effect of dangerous objects is controversial. Previous studies have manipulated task type and found that dangerous objects elicited increased motor inhibition compared to safe objects in the reachability judgment task but not in the categorization task. However, it was still unclear why motor inhibition was reduced for dangerous objects in the categorization task. We speculated that the activation strength of object affordance might modulate the occurrence of motor inhibition. To test this hypothesis, the present study designed a prime-target grasping consistency judgment task and manipulated target grips (power grip vs. precision grip), target dangerousness (dangerous vs. safe), and Go/NoGo (Go vs. NoGo). The results showed that under the condition of high activation strength of the target affordance (i.e., power grip targets), processing dangerous targets evoked increased motor inhibition (reflected by a more negative frontal N2 component) compared to safe targets and produced a motor interference effect in reaction time (RT). In contrast, under the condition of low target affordance activation strength (i.e., precision grip targets), processing dangerous targets facilitated RT compared to safe targets, with no difference found between the dangerous and safe conditions in the frontal N2 component. Furthermore, compared to safe objects, dangerous objects attracted more attention and recruited more cognitive resources to select appropriate responses to them. This study extended the findings of previous studies on the motor interference effect by highlighting the importance of activation strength for eliciting motor inhibition based on the prime-target consistency judgment task.

Driving Skills at Licensure and Time to First Crash.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Young drivers are overrepresented in crashes, and newly licensed drivers are at high risk, particularly in the months immediately post-licensure. Using a virtual driving assessment (VDA) implemented in the licensing workflow in Ohio, this study examined how driving skills measured at the time of licensure contribute to crash risk post-licensure in newly licensed young drivers. METHODS: This study examined 16 914 young drivers (<25 years of age) in Ohio who completed the VDA at the time of licensure and their subsequent police-reported crash records. By using the outcome of time to first crash, a Cox proportional hazard model was used to estimate the risk of a crash during the follow-up period as a function of VDA Driving Class (and Skill Cluster) membership. RESULTS: The best performing No Issues Driving Class had a crash risk 10% lower than average (95% confidence interval [CI] 13% to 6%), whereas the Major Issues with Dangerous Behavior Class had a crash risk 11% higher than average (95% CI 1% to 22%). These results withstood adjusting for covariates (age, sex, and tract-level socioeconomic status indicators). At the same time, drivers licensed at age 18 had a crash risk 16% higher than average (95% CI 6% to 27%). CONCLUSIONS: This population-level study reveals that driving skills measured at the time of licensure are a predictor of crashes early in licensure, paving the way for better prediction models and targeted, personalized interventions. The authors of future studies should explore time- and exposure-varying risks.

Investigating the cognitive processing of tools: Effects of dangerousness and directionality on attentional biases.

Research has found a tool-based head-superiority effect (responses are faster to target stimuli that appear at the head than at the handle position). However, these studies did not consider the effects of directionality and dangerousness. This study investigated how directionality and dangerousness influence the head-superiority effect. Subjects were required to respond to the target location in all experiments. Experiment 1 manipulated the directionality, dangerousness and target location. Experiment 2 matched the sharpness of the tool tip in the directed conditions. Experiment 3 shortened the presentation time of the cue stimuli from 800 ms to 200 ms. Experiment 4 selected four tools with different functions to rule out an alternative explanation caused by functional repetition. The results indicate that a head-superiority effect emerges in the directed condition, and that dangerousness modulates the magnitude of this effect during the 800 ms condition. However, the modulation effect of dangerousness diminishes during the 200 ms condition.

Sex difference in driving speed management: The mediation effect of impulse control.

Previous studies have shown that male drivers drive faster than female drivers, but there is no agreement on whether impulsivity could induce this sex difference, nor is there a cross-sectional comparison of the effects of different road environments. The purpose of this study was to verify whether impulsivity and impulse control could explain the sex differences in driving speed. A driving simulator study (study 1, N = 41) was performed to investigate whether there were sex differences in driving speeds in two road sections of different complexity, and a questionnaire survey (study 2, N = 163) was conducted to investigate the relationship between sex, impulsivity, impulse control and driving behavior of the participants. The results showed that male drivers drove faster on simple roads, but this difference did not show on complex roads. There were no sex differences in impulsivity traits, but male participants had significant lower levels of impulse control. The results also reveal a partial mediating role of impulse control in the relationship between sex and driving speed. These results suggest that impulse control can predict dangerous driving behaviors and is an important factor in explaining sex differences in driving speed.

"Stigmatization and perceived dangerousness for intrafamilial child sexual abuse of fathers with a history of sexual offenses and paraphilic interests: Results from a survey of legal psychological experts".

BACKGROUND: Intrafamilial child sexual abuse (ICSA) is a puzzling phenomenon that is not well understood by researches. Nevertheless, psychologists are demanded to assess the risk for child maltreatment by family courts regarding male caregivers with a history of sex offenses and/or paraphilic interests. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess legal psychological experts' perspective on risk assessment in family court proceedings regarding ICSA, their opinions regarding the necessity of contact limitations between fathers/stepfathers who might impose a risk for ICSA, and experts' stigmatization of minor-attracted persons. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: 153 psychological experts working in family court proceedings were assessed via an online survey. METHOD: Jahnke's Stigma Inventory was used as well as a questionnaire tapping into different contact limitations, the perception of child maltreatment risk, and parental capacity. Network analysis was conducted to multivariately investigate item intercorrelations. RESULTS: Fathers/stepfathers with a diagnosed pedophilic disorder are being regarded as most dangerous, 71 % of the experts agreed with the necessity of a complete contact ban. Reduced parental capacity and increased risk for child maltreatment was observed with regard to sexual offending history and paraphilias. CONCLUSIONS: Psychological experts in family court proceedings hardly discriminate between sexual offending and paraphilic interests which might be associated with stigmatizing attitudes and lack of experience. An increasing cooperation between family psychologists and experts of forensic risk assessment might reduce the risk of stigmatization and may contribute to more adequate risk assessments for ICSA thus aiding to prevent children from sexual victimization or misinformed risk management interventions.

Investigating jaywalker crossing risks from the sequential-conflict perspective: A grouped random parameters generalized ordered probit model.

Jaywalking at the mid-blocks without crossing facilities has been widely acknowledged as a dangerous crossing behavior. Due to the "unexpected" nature of jaywalking activities, jaywalkers may encounter multiple conflicts in sequence, called sequential jaywalker-vehicle (J-V) conflicts in this study. Sequential conflicts are usually complex and hazardous, but receive little attention in previous studies. To fill such research gaps, this study investigates the jaywalking risks from the sequential-conflict perspective, providing a more comprehensive depiction of the jaywalking hazards. Moreover, the "lagged effects" of the previous conflict-related factors on the subsequent conflict are also explored. Such considerations could help with predicting J-V conflicts in advance, further assisting the drivers to adopt precautionary actions. The results indicate that, as the conflict sequence increases, a higher proportion of jaywalkers would behave aggressively, and the proportion of slight conflicts increases accordingly. Furthermore, the grouped random parameters generalized ordered probit model is established to identify the influencing factors of sequential conflicts, which could account for the panel effects and unobserved heterogeneity simultaneously. The model results indicate that jaywalkers' previous evasive actions, such as "decelerating while swerving behind the vehicle", could lead to severer subsequent conflicts. In addition, jaywalkers' previous risky actions (i.e. rushing before the vehicle, using phones) are prone to convey to the subsequent conflicts, further increasing the subsequent conflict severity level. Moreover, non-motor vehicles are found to be a threat to the jaywalkers at mid-blocks without crossing facilities. In light of the above-mentioned results, practical suggestions are provided to reduce the jaywalking activities and prevent the jaywalker-involved accidents.

Deadly Initiations: Characteristics of Hazing Deaths in the United States (1994-2019).

On American college campuses, numerous students have died as a result of hazing activities perpetrated in fraternities, sororities, and other student groups. Still, little is known about the common characteristics among these hazing deaths. This study aims to investigate the circumstances surrounding these fatal incidents by examining hazing deaths that occurred at institutions of higher education in the United States from 1994 to 2019. This analysis revealed common characteristics related to the victims, organizations, institutions, incidents, and outcomes of these deaths. The findings support past hazing research, as victims were predominantly males pledging social fraternities. Although hazing deaths were widespread, there was variation among institutional characteristics, region, and size. The perpetrators of these incidents faced legal ramifications, including criminal convictions and civil lawsuits. The recognition of these trends can improve our understanding of the conditions present when dangerous hazing activities occur and the best practices for prevention and response.

Social Worldviews Predict the General Factor of Paranormal and Generic Conspiracist Beliefs.

Even though wide access to any warranted information in the modern age, the problem of unfounded belief is still relevant, since these beliefs often lead to negative consequences (e.g., vaccination refusal, homeopathic treatment, etc.). The aim of this study was testing the relationship of social worldviews with paranormal beliefs and conspiracy beliefs. We assumed dimensionality hypothesis based on functional standpoint that there should be a general factor (underlying all the domains of paranormal beliefs and generic conspiracist beliefs), which has associations with the social worldviews as well. Derived our analysis from the survey of 228 participants (Mage = 30.6, SD = 11.7), we found that (a) the structure of paranormal and generic conspiracist beliefs can be described by a bifactor model; (b) the general factor of paranormal and generic conspiracist beliefs in the bifactor model was positively associated with global belief in just world and dangerous worldview; (c) paranormal beliefs were positively associated with global belief in just world and negatively associated with competitive worldview; (d) generic conspiracist beliefs were positively associated with dangerous worldview, competitive worldview, and zero-sum game belief; (e) contrary to our hypotheses, there was no evidence for any negative association of paranormal beliefs with dangerous worldview or zero-sum game belief and for any negative association of generic conspiracist beliefs with global belief in just world. We claim that the unfounded beliefs can be of some functional nature, demonstrating a connection with social worldviews, which opens up new perspectives for considering this problem within the framework of social psychology.

Recreational Skydiving-Really That Dangerous? A Systematic Review.

Skydiving have gained mainstream popularity over the past decades. However, limited data exist on the injury risk or type associated with skydiving. This systematic review evaluated the injuries and fatalities of civilian skydivers. A PRISMA-guided literature search was performed in MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Embase using the following MeSH terms: "skydiving" or "parachute" alone or in combination with "injury" or "trauma" was performed including all studies through June 2022 in both English and German. Additionally, injury reports from the German, American, and British Parachute Associations were reviewed. Of the 277 articles matching the selected search terms, 10 original articles and 34 non-scientific reports from various skydiving associations were included. More than 62 million jumps were evaluated, with an average of 3,200,000 jumps per year, which showed an average injury rate of 0.044% and an average fatality rate of 0.0011%. The most common injuries sustained by recreational skydivers involved the lumbar spine and lower extremities. Injuries were most commonly reported during the landing sequence. With modern equipment and training methods, fatalities occur in less than 1 per 100,000 cases, and serious injuries requiring hospitalization in less than 2 per 10,000 cases. This puts the assessment of skydiving as a high-risk sport into perspective.

Cessation of dangerousness status in Brasília, Brazil: An analysis of 144 reports from Federal District Medical Examiner's Office in the last 10 years.

The aim of this study is to evaluate factors related to cessation of dangerousness of individuals under safety measures, through the study of psychiatric reports. This is a cross-sectional study, conducted through a retrospective analysis of expert psychiatric dangerousness cessation reports issued by the Federal District Coroner's Office, Brasília, Brazil. By examining official files, information was extracted from the reports (socio-demographic data, clinical characteristics, type of crime, historical characteristics and the search for items related to risk assessment present in instruments such as Historical, Clinical and Risk Management [HCR-20], Psychopathy Checklist - Revised [PCL-R], Two-Tiered Violence Risk Scale [TTV], Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability [START] and others) and submitted to statistical analysis and then compared to other studies on the subject. The items most considered by the experts were those referring to PCL-R, START and the "non static" part of HCR-20 and TTV. For the non-cessation of dangerousness, we've found: absence of remorse, fragile behavioral control, early behavioral problems, juvenile delinquency. For the cessation of dangerousness, we've found: presence of social skills, balanced emotional state, presence of social support, adherence to rules, good coping strategies, involvement with treatment and adherence. The systematization and standardization of forensic psychiatric reports needs to be established and the use of risk assessment instruments are essential to support better decisions by the experts.

Effects of Mass Shootings on Mental Illness Stigma in the United States.

Although the vast majority of people with mental illness (PWMI) are not violent, Americans tend to think they are more dangerous than the general population. Because negative media portrayals may contribute to stigma, we used time-series analyses to examine changes in the public's perceived dangerousness of PWMI around six mass shootings whose perpetrators were reported to have a mental illness. From 2011 to 2019, 38,094 U.S. participants completed an online study assessing implicit and explicit perceived dangerousness of PWMI. There were large, upward spikes in perceived dangerousness the week of the Sandy Hook mass shooting that were relatively short-lived. However, there was not a consistent pattern of effects for other events analyzed, and any other spikes observed were smaller. Effects tended to be larger for explicit versus implicit perceived dangerousness. Sandy Hook seemed to temporarily worsen perceived dangerousness of PWMI, but this pattern was not observed for other mass shootings.