Physical effort of police officers as a determinant of their behavior toward criminals

The influence of police officers' physical effort on their (a) perceptions of criminals and (b) shooting behavior during confrontations with criminals was examined in 2 experiments. On the basis of emotion theory and attribution theory (Schachter, 1964; Zillmann, 1978, 1983) and Kahneman's (1973) variable-allocation capacity model, it was hypothesized that physical effort would result in the underestimation of criminal aggression, less aggressive feelings toward the criminal, and decreased willingness to shoot the criminal. These hypotheses were supported.