The material culture of homicidal fantasies

A descriptive study was conducted of normal undergraduate students' impulsi ve homicidal thoughts and the weapons used in these fantasies. Participants completed a questionnaire asking them to describe a recent incident in whi ch they thought about killing someone. A significant proportion of particip ants reported having homicidal fantasies. Most fantasies were elicited by f rustrating or threatening interpersonal events and involved material-cultur al weapons (e.g., firearms, knives, clubs) as opposed to organismic weapons (e.g,, hands, feet). Material-cultural weapons were rated as easier to use and more lethal than organismic weapons, and participants reported higher self-efficacy beliefs for using material-cultural weapons. Most participant s reported that they had been exposed to mass media models using their weap ons of choice and that they had access to these weapons. The findings are i nterpreted as evidence for evolved psychological machinery that can associa te material-cultural implements with aggressive behavior and rehearse this association through fantasy. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.