Intuitive Impressions: Comparing Law Enforcement and the General Population’s Perception of Stress in Others

Although much research has addressed the physiological and behavioral differences between challenged and threatened stress levels (Blascovich, 2008; Frings, et al., 2012; McEwen, 2000; Vine, et al., 2013), limited attention has been paid to the ability of an observer to read behavioral cues in others and correctly identify the type of stress the target might be feeling. The purpose of the current work was to help address this gap in the literature and to compare the accuracy of participants from two groups, the general population and those with law enforcement training, who classified targets in silent video clips as challenged or threatened. What follows is a review of several areas of research related to stress classification. Research in these areas informed the hypothesis that law enforcement training would lead to improved accuracy of stress classification in comparison to civilians