The role of death anxiety on marksmanship performance: a virtual reality simulator study

Abstract

Despite the well-established relationship between state anxiety and marksmanship performance, few efforts have examined the individual differences that affect the extent to which individuals experience state anxiety in combat situations. Thus, further studies are needed to increase the probability of mission accomplishment, which could ultimately serve to safely bring soldiers home. The present study examined how death anxiety, a trait-based difference affects state anxiety, which in turn affects shooting performance on a battlefield. In particular, we used a virtual reality simulator to create a realistic engagement setting in which simulated death anxiety is salient. On a sample of 99 active-duty enlisted men in the Republic of Korea Army, we found that death anxiety, and not trait anxiety, increased state anxiety, which in turn decreased marksmanship performance. Overall, the current findings highlight the role of death anxiety in combat situations. The practical implications and avenues for future research are also discussed.

Practical summary

Soldiers encounter anxiety in threatening circumstances in which mortality is salient. We examined the role of trait death anxiety in combat situations using a virtual reality simulator. The results indicate that death anxiety increases state anxiety while decreasing marksmanship performance, which has important implications for the military.

Keywords:

• Death anxiety
• trait anxiety
• state anxiety
• marksmanship performance
• virtual reality simulator

Author notes

The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Korea Military Academy and the Republic of Korea Army.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Notes

1 When not controlling for control variables, p values were .71 (total effect) and .48 (direct effect), and when controlling for the variables, p values were .98 (total effect) and .72 (direct effect). See Table 1 for the indirect effects’ CIs.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Science and ICT in the Republic of Korea.