An recent article at CNN.com by Prof. Saul Kassin on the psychological theories that might explain what drove the shooter in Arizona, reveals some interesting findings on what underlies violent behavior.
1) Men who show antisocial behavior as children such as truancy, setting fires, abusing animals, often are diagnosed to have psychopathy. These are the same adults who do not show empathy, aren't able to show real emotions, often are unfeeling in relationships and engage in high risk and even unethical behavior. From my observation many of them end up in business school and eventually in business which makes teaching ethics so hard to do!
2) Men are much more likely to commit violent acts than women and there is some evidence that violence is linked to testosterone levels. Kassin mentions in his article that "roid rage" - the heightened propensity men on steroids often experience - seems to be related to the increased level of testosterone.
3) Even when there are behavioral precursors that might indicate a violent episode for an individual, often an event that triggers frustration increases the likelihood for violence. This frustration can be caused by social or economic failures but interestingly can also be caused by pain, heat, insult, jealousy and rejection. Those are conditions that people who are concerned about an individual can look out for but unfortunately there's no way of shielding a vulnerable individual from these types of events.
4) These violent acts are not spontaneous. They are often well planned out a study by the U.S. Secret Service found when looking at 37 shootings. In many cases the perpetrator discusses their plans with at least one adult and/or classmates. We need a better mechanism for people to report this type of foreknowledge!
4) The most interesting part of Kassin's article was his assertion that studies have shown that just the presence of a weapon (vs. not present) makes people more likely to administer painful electric shocks to strangers. The effect of this cue could potentially be a powerful, subversive one especially when we think of the prevalence of weapons and violence in the media. And this exacerbated by individuals who are exposed to these cues who might be vulnerable in some way!
Many of us know of individuals who could potentially "pull a postal" because of their personality, behaviors, current life state, isolation, and frustration. It is unfortunate that even with this knowledge it is difficult to know how best to deal with this concern.
Beyond that, it is important that more research be done to understand how cues in environment might affect or trigger behaviors that are dangerous...with that knowledge, we might be able to decide how we might choose to articulate commercial products such as games, TV shows, ads, in order to try to foster a more safe and civil society.
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