Title |
Disarming the gunslinger effect: Reaction beats intention for cooperative actions
|
---|---|
Published in |
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, April 2018
|
DOI | 10.3758/s13423-018-1462-5 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Lisa Weller, Wilfried Kunde, Roland Pfister |
Abstract |
According to the famous physicist Niels Bohr, gunfights at high noon in Western movies not only captivate the cinema audience but also provide an accurate illustration of a psychophysical law. He suggested that willed actions come with slower movement execution than reactions, and therefore that a film's hero is able to get the upper hand even though the villain normally draws first. A corresponding "gunslinger effect" has been substantiated by empirical studies. Because these studies used a markedly competitive setting, however, it is currently unclear whether the gunslinger effect indeed reflects structural differences between willed actions and reactive movements, or whether it is a by-product of the competitive setting. To obtain bullet-proof evidence for a true reactive advantage, we investigated willed and reactive movements during a cooperative interaction of two participants. A pronounced reactive advantage emerged, indicating that two independent systems indeed control willed and reactive movements. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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United Kingdom | 6 | 26% |
United States | 4 | 17% |
Canada | 1 | 4% |
Czechia | 1 | 4% |
Switzerland | 1 | 4% |
Germany | 1 | 4% |
Unknown | 9 | 39% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
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Members of the public | 19 | 83% |
Scientists | 2 | 9% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 4% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 4% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Unknown | 16 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Master | 4 | 25% |
Researcher | 3 | 19% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 2 | 13% |
Professor | 1 | 6% |
Lecturer > Senior Lecturer | 1 | 6% |
Other | 2 | 13% |
Unknown | 3 | 19% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Neuroscience | 4 | 25% |
Psychology | 2 | 13% |
Sports and Recreations | 2 | 13% |
Arts and Humanities | 1 | 6% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 1 | 6% |
Other | 1 | 6% |
Unknown | 5 | 31% |