https://theconversation.com/ps...als-for-sport-176277



Psychology of trophy hunting: why some people kill animals for sport



February 3, 2022 11.39am EST
Author
Geoff Beattie
Professor of Psychology, Edge Hill University

Disclosure statement
Geoff Beattie has acted as a consultant to the Born Free Foundation.

Partners
Edge Hill University

Edge Hill University provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.


Do you have any desire to stalk and kill an elephant? Probably not, but some relish the idea.

Recently the world’s largest trophy hunting convention took place in Las Vegas, organised by Safari Club International, an influential US-based hunting lobby group. Attendees bid in an auction on a trip to hunt and shoot polar bears, with some of the funds raised earmarked to fight UK government plans to ban hunting trophies.

The proposed new laws will be some of the toughest in the world, banning imports of dead animal trophies not only from the “big five” most desirable hunted animals – lions, leopards, elephants, rhino and buffalo – but also around 7,000 other endangered and threatened species.

Trophy hunters pay large sums of money, often tens of thousands of dollars, to travel around the world to kill wild animals. Who can forget the killing of Cecil the lion in 2015 in Zimbabwe? He was hunted over many hours with a bow and arrow, before being skinned and beheaded by a dentist and committed trophy hunter from Minnesota.


Many of us feel genuine bewilderment about why men (and some women) have the desire to kill like this. Can psychology help shed some light on what lies behind the motivation to hunt?

Perhaps it’s about achievement

Hunters themselves argue that hunting large prey is integral to our evolutionary past – that it’s part of our human DNA.

But anthropological research suggests that hunting large prey provides too much food at any one time, which does not necessarily lead to future benefits.

One study offers a different evolutionary explanation called the “costly signalling theory” – the dead prey was an easily visible display of skill and courage and therefore increased the fitness status and sexual advantage for members of the ancestral hunting group (a bit like the feathers of a peacock).

Could trophy hunting be the modern-day equivalent?

To gain some insight into the psychological motivations of trophy hunters, researchers analysed 455 hunting stories from online hunting forums, picking out 2,864 individual phrases from these stories to identify the reasons for hunters feeling satisfied after their kills.

They found “achievement” to be the most frequently reported, followed by “appreciation” of the animals (including “love” of the animals they kill) and “affiliation”, the sense of being part of a community of hunters and the resulting strengthening of social bonds.


Another study analysed the non-verbal communication of the hunters, especially the type of smile of hunters in social media posts where they posed with their dead prey. They found that smiles of “true pleasure” were significantly more likely when hunters were photographed with carnivores rather than herbivores and when the prey was large rather than small. The authors concluded that this research highlights the importance of the notion of inner achievement in trophy hunting.

But this may be too limited a conclusion.

These smiles are more than just natural signs of pleasure. They are social displays exaggerated for social media posts and part of an image involving both the hunter and the hunted – a display of power, dominance and control. Just as the “costly signalling” theory suggests, the animal is a mere prop in a story about the hunters so they can signal their status and fitness in a photo, which is a reconstruction in memory of the hunt itself.


The dark triad

And this is where psychology can begin to shed some light on what motivates people to hunt.

It has been suggested that narcissism, machiavellianism and (non-clinical) psychopathy are all involved, the so-called “dark triad” of personality characteristics.

Narcissists have an inflated sense of self and crave positive attention. To maintain this inflated level of self-esteem they must engage in strategies to maintain and develop their self-image, like posing with a lion they’ve just killed. Machiavellians often manipulate social situations for their own ends, just like the carefully managed social media images, while psychopaths are usually callous and lack empathy – they simply do not experience the same level of emotion about the suffering of others, whether human or animal. So animals can be used as props to maintain their self-image of superiority without guilt or conscience.


In a study of the link between dark triad traits and attitudes towards animals, researchers found that animal cruelty is an indicator of violent antisocial behaviour. They also found that less positive attitudes towards animals were associated with higher levels of all three of the traits and that higher levels of psychopathy were associated with actual behaviour, for example, “having intentionally killed a stray or wild animal for no good reason” and “having intentionally hurt or tortured an animal for the purpose of teasing it or causing pain”.

This research was not conducted with trophy hunters themselves, and whether these findings apply to them depends on how you view trophy hunting. If you assume it requires a less positive attitude toward animals and is a sanctioned act of animal cruelty, then these results might well be relevant. It seems likely that a lack of empathy and a degree of callousness would facilitate trophy hunting, and the images would allow the maintenance of narcissistic flow for these people.

I believe that psychology may well hold the key to understanding trophy hunting and why it flourishes in this narcissistic age of ours. Understanding hunter motivation is important, not least because it can lead to improved wildlife management policy and practice, and can tell us, ultimately, what can be done to combat trophy hunting.

What a load of bloody codswallop!

They make things up to justify their ignorance!

Yep.

Based on his comments, all of those people running around his country slashing people must be secret trophy hunters, aye?

Maybe he should chat with the Queen.

Of course this is all nonsense. I genuinely dont know how anyone can form a right opinion without first hand experience but that seems to be the way of the world these days!

I do however feel that we are going down a slippery slope to keep justyfying our passion for hunting by saying we eat the meat or do it for conservation. If someone asks me I say I like to hunt because its what I like to do and enjoy and the killing of the animal is a small part of the whole experience. Travelling to exotic lands, seeing things which regular tourists dont, eating the local food, meeting new friends, experiencing the culture these are all parts of the hunt. And finally what we do has side benefits of feeding people, conservation etc.

My 2 cents!

AR

Wow!

The 2 sides are so far apart…logical debate and conversation cannot be had.

The gist of this article is to put forth the idea that WE are psychopaths with multiple personality disorders and then try and justify his position scientifically.

How do you debate with someone who believes you are psychologically flawed and unevolved to their level?

To me…I see them with the basic mentality and logical flaws that drove nazism.

I don’t have to justify what I do to anyone.

There are literally hundreds of things others do I find objectionable, or out right revolting!

They are legal activities, and I don’t waste my time trying to convince those involve to give them up.

quote:

What a load of bloody codswallop!

We, "the perpetrators of these murderous acts" are well aware that it is all a load of crap but, the Professor is a wily fellow because his orchestrated diatribe hits the nerve of his narrow-minded followers and those gullible enough to be swayed by his preposterous theories.

When all this BS started it was mild, almost unnoticed and nobody really gave it much thought but over the years, it gained momentum and got progressively worse and so it will continue.

We have seen the results undeniably materialize before our eyes, with the most recent being the UK ban; blame it on the Bimbo, Boris or whoever you wish, but the ban is there and other spineless politicians will follow suit.

We are living in different times made up of a society with different views on modern day life (fucked up as they might be to most) but that's how it is and like it or not we are the minority in the pie graph.

I have NEVER seen a medical paper that requires you to have a view of the behavior in question in order to decide if the patient is diagnosable with a pathology.

That clown should be ashamed of himself.

This article starts with the disclosure that the "professor" has been a consultant to the Born Free Foundation, and ends with, "...what can be done to combat trophy hunting." 'Nuff said! It's trash from start to finish.

It appears that Geoff Beattie is a little man trying to make himself appear important. That is needed to be a consultant and in demand.

He has to provide or make up information that the Born Free Foundations will use to keep making money from them. If he did not provide what they were wanting, they would stop using him. Many college professors do that to make side money from their profession.

Well, Saeed it appears that our forum is being monitored and used, I figured that all along. That is one reason that members of hunting forums need to do a good job of culling their photos before posting them. I am thinking that photos used need to be of the animals carefully photographed. A person need to save the photos of themself for there viewing.

Just to follow up on this. Sometime ago I was contacted by a group of students from a university in Switzerland. They found my website where I advertise hunting in Botswana. They were studying tourism and one of the courses was on some international destination, so they picked Botswana.

Their assignment or curiosity was how the reopening of hunting effected tourism in Bots.

If you google [Hunting in Botswana] every article you read will tell you how bad it is. The antis have published 100s of articles and papers with their view point. This is basically what the students read and believed. We did a
1 hr zoom call and after discussing the merits of hunting etc. at the end of the session most of the students said we had no idea that hunting has 0 impact on tourism and if anything hunting benefits areas that are not viable for tourism.

It really was eye opener for me to see their reaction and demonstrated that a lot of people out there are misled. Our organisations really need to do more outreach and publish more articles and papers and preach to the public. Really there was no view point from our side, so one cant blame them entirely I suppose. All they seem to do is keep preaching to the bloody choir!

AR

The professor's sources buckled down and read 455 hunting stories on online hunting forums, and looked at an untold (and unreported) number of photos of hunters who smiled.

Now, that is in-depth research, isn't it?

Based on such thorough and painstaking study (and the professor's admitted prejudice against hunters), he then pushes the conclusion on his readers that hunters are narcissistic, Machiavellian psychopaths.

What a shill. This kind of shoddy psychobabble has nothing to do with science, even assuming that one can call psychology a science.

It is nothing more than pure and shameless anti-hunting propaganda, dressed up in pseudo-scientific sheep's clothing, and an insult to any thinking person's intelligence.

Fellas -

We come on here and other sites and complain to one another, site conservation facts, pat each other on the back, yet wonder why we are losing.

We are dealing with a very dishonest opponent. It's very difficult, probably impossible to make a "fence-sitter" sway to being a believer in conservation thru sport hunting when we have to correct about every point our opponents make.

Try to explain to someone that these "endangered species" really aren't endangered. You'll make yourself crazy.

I had a sports massage yesterday. I was on my stomach at first. I have the African 29 Tattooed on my back. There, in the center is an Elephant about 10" tall. The room was dark, she had me roll over on my back and I saw a tat on her shoulder. She asked me about mine. Hers was an Elephant. Lets put it this way, She's not a hunter and I probably won't be going back to her.

Point being, trying to explain to an Elephant lover, that I walked up to a 65# Elephant in Botswana's Mababe depression and promptly shot it between the eyes and did it for conservation, just doesn't fly and I don't even try any more. Some things are better left unsaid.

I didn't do it for conservation, I didn't do it to feed anyone. I did it because I wanted to kill an Elephant. Heck, all 12,000# of meat or whatever, rotted in the sun anyway.

We are Predators, we are Hunter/Gatherers. we shouldn't run from it and shouldn't make excuses. And, we SHOULDN'T HAVE been all over the internet showing everyone our kills. Just where did this Douchenozzle get the photo's from? or the stories? he got them from us, we willingly have killed ourselves, slowly by 1000 cuts.

I've argued myself silly with guys on here about this, nearly every single time another story like this comes up. The negative content was contributed by us. Will someone respond that it makes sense to continue? But, as I've said, the horse is out of the barn, the damage is done. The UK will likely pass its ban, America will likely follow to some degree.

Even Trump wasn't a friend to us, he called it a "horror-show"

SMH...

100% Steve.

After reading some of the above comments, I am glad that I did not waste my time reading the original post.

Sure thing that he voted for Biden & Harris.

Steve, there is no way I am laying down the gloves on this.

Nor do I believe any hunter should do so.

At every opportunity, we need to let the antis know we are right, and show them that they are wrong.

There are lots of ways to do that, always with reason and sometimes with sarcasm, when needed, but also always with righteous belief in our cause.

If we aren't willing to do that, we shouldn't be doing what we do.

It was the internet that did us in. More Facebook than AR I believe. All the PHs and outfitters trying to do marketing on Facebook and Instagram don’t do us any favors either.

Its ancient sport and it should have just been kept in the dark ages — away from the internet and just marketed face to face.

I have given up hope it will ever be turned around.

quote:

If you assume it requires a less positive attitude toward animals and is a sanctioned act of animal cruelty, then these results might well be relevant. It seems likely that a lack of empathy and a degree of callousness would facilitate trophy hunting, and the images would allow the maintenance of narcissistic flow for these people.

I believe that psychology may well hold the key to understanding trophy hunting and why it flourishes in this narcissistic age of ours. Understanding hunter motivation is important, not least because it can lead to improved wildlife management policy and practice, and can tell us, ultimately, what can be done to combat trophy hunting.

A lot of mental gymnastics and assumptions to come up to the desired conclusion above.

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
I have NEVER seen a medical paper that requires you to have a view of the behavior in question in order to decide if the patient is diagnosable with a pathology.

That clown should be ashamed of himself.

Good point ^^^

quote:

But anthropological research suggests that hunting large prey provides too much food at any one time, which does not necessarily lead to future benefits.

One study offers a different evolutionary explanation called the “costly signalling theory” – the dead prey was an easily visible display of skill and courage and therefore increased the fitness status and sexual advantage for members of the ancestral hunting group (a bit like the feathers of a peacock).

I guess Neanderthal’s taking down a wooly mammoth only did it because of their deep psychological problems not because it fed and clothed the entire group.

Our "society" has become too "civilized". You wouldn't believe the ridiculous ideas they foist on our children in college or the limp wristed wimps that date my daughter. I'd just kick their ass and tell them to hit the road, if I could. Oh I could still kick their ass physically, but while that attitude was popular when I was growing up, not so much now. Kinder, Gentler bullshit.

Hunting is part of my life, but the actual shooting part is just an incidental part. The main reason for hunting is to get into the wilds and get close and personal with wild animals. Any hunting should be for management purposes where you are taking out surplus animals that are over and above carrying capacity of the ecosystem in which you are hunting, and the focus should be on older, yeld or poorer quality animals. The primary trophy should be the meat - a high value protein, but I think we should also make full use of skins, horns and any other bi products.

And if somebody is prepared to spend their hard earned cash on assisting / participating in such activities then provides good economic support to keeping such areas truly wild.

I am very conscious that living in the UK the vast majority of truly wild areas are former hunting forests for the kings of old. Otherwise all the land is in use for agriculture and yes we have deer, but we have lost all our other natural big animals.

If we want to keep wild areas, they need to be economic, and hunting is one of the few economic activities that has minimal impact if managed properly.

quote:

ur "society" has become too "civilized". You wouldn't believe the ridiculous ideas they foist on our children in college or the limp wristed wimps that date my daughter. I'd just kick their ass and tell them to hit the road, if I could. Oh I could still kick their ass physically, but while that attitude was popular when I was growing up, not so much now. Kinder, Gentler bullshit.

Right on!

quote:

Any hunting should be for management purposes where you are taking out surplus animals that are over and above carrying capacity of the ecosystem in which you are hunting, and the focus should be on older, yield or poorer quality animals.

The above is precisely the system being applied in African hunting through a licensed quota system which equates to game management and is aimed at conserving healthy populations of wildlife.

Unfortunately the Professors and Scientists for that matter refuse to accept the facts and further, that the most culpable attribute is the human conflict created by the population explosion taking place in Africa and the desperate need for additional land; instead and only because it suits their agenda, the "murderers" are the legal hunters and only because for them, it is a sport.

Nah, according to their unswayed fixation, in today's society one does not kill for sport or tradition.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Our "society" has become too "civilized". You wouldn't believe the ridiculous ideas they foist on our children in college or the limp wristed wimps that date my daughter. I'd just kick their ass and tell them to hit the road, if I could. Oh I could still kick their ass physically, but while that attitude was popular when I was growing up, not so much now. Kinder, Gentler bullshit.

Amen!

Several years ago I read an article about a university study. They were studying a mental disorder that caused people to get very upset about things that were none of their business. Two examples they used for this disorder was people that would attack gays just because they disliked their behavior and anti-hunters. I thought it was hilarious that they lumped those two groups together. I wish I could find that study, but it didn't get much press.

Appox 82 Billion land animals and 1.4 trillion water-based fish and animals (UN figures) were killed per annum to feed humans.

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
Appox 82 Billion land animals and 1.4 trillion water-based fish and animals (UN figures) were killed per annum to feed humans.

And 453 trillion trees are felled to make toilet paper to wipe their arses!

True words.

I thought this response, by Kevin Costner, on the TV series, Yellowstone, was right on the money:

How Cute Does An Animal Have To Be Before You Care If It Dies To Feed You

quote:

Originally posted by reddy375:
Of course this is all nonsense. I genuinely dont know how anyone can form a right opinion without first hand experience but that seems to be the way of the world these days!

I do however feel that we are going down a slippery slope to keep justyfying our passion for hunting by saying we eat the meat or do it for conservation. If someone asks me I say I like to hunt because its what I like to do and enjoy and the killing of the animal is a small part of the whole experience. Travelling to exotic lands, seeing things which regular tourists dont, eating the local food, meeting new friends, experiencing the culture these are all parts of the hunt. And finally what we do has side benefits of feeding people, conservation etc.

My 2 cents!

AR

Well, said Arjun
Exactly what I’ve been saying, I like hunting and traveling and have no excuse for it

No use arguing with logic or common sense.

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Our "society" has become too "civilized". You wouldn't believe the ridiculous ideas they foist on our children in college or the limp wristed wimps that date my daughter. I'd just kick their ass and tell them to hit the road, if I could. Oh I could still kick their ass physically, but while that attitude was popular when I was growing up, not so much now. Kinder, Gentler bullshit.

Amen!

I must have done something right. My daughter is seeing a former Marine. I am too old to kick his ass but, luckily, have no need to. My daughter hunts and fishes with him.

quote:

Originally posted by Heym SR20:
Hunting is part of my life, but the actual shooting part is just an incidental part. The main reason for hunting is to get into the wilds and get close and personal with wild animals. Any hunting should be for management purposes where you are taking out surplus animals that are over and above carrying capacity of the ecosystem in which you are hunting, and the focus should be on older, yeld or poorer quality animals. The primary trophy should be the meat - a high value protein, but I think we should also make full use of skins, horns and any other bi products.

And if somebody is prepared to spend their hard earned cash on assisting / participating in such activities then provides good economic support to keeping such areas truly wild.

I am very conscious that living in the UK the vast majority of truly wild areas are former hunting forests for the kings of old. Otherwise all the land is in use for agriculture and yes we have deer, but we have lost all our other natural big animals.

If we want to keep wild areas, they need to be economic, and hunting is one of the few economic activities that has minimal impact if managed properly.

Well said. People ask me why I don’t just take pictures of the game rather than shoot. My response is that I hunt to satisfy my need to get back to my roots as a predator and to experience being an integral part of the food chain. Photographers observe nature but hunters are part of it. Hunting is a much more intense experience.

Arjun and Milan are correct.

I will be respectful to anyone if they show me respect. I will not try to justify or apologize for what I enjoying doing.

And on a side note, I will never use the word ‘harvest’. This is about the dumbest word people use to try to justify killing an animal. Our Grandfathers never used this word.

quote:

Originally posted by Jason P:
Arjun and Milan are correct.

I will be respectful to anyone if they show me respect. I will not try to justify or apologize for what I enjoying doing.

And on a side note, I will never use the word ‘harvest’. This is about the dumbest word people use to try to justify killing an animal. Our Grandfathers never used this word.

Jason, I actually tell guys who use the term harvest lots of shit and told few, they are simple pussies
I do not mix words anymore
And people who have problem with hunting?
I tell them I do what I do and I DONT TELL THEM WHAT THEY SHOULD OR SHOULD NOT DO…
I’m done with any kinda explanations

In my opinion, any male of the human species who does not "get" hunting has a psychological disorder. It's called "wimpism".

quote:

And on a side note, I will never use the word ‘harvest’. This is about the dumbest word people use to try to justify killing an animal. Our Grandfathers never used this word.

Definition of harvest right from the dictionary:

har·vest
/ˈhärvəst/
Learn to pronounce
See definitions in:
All
Farming
Biology
Medicine
noun
the process or period of gathering in crops.
"helping with the harvest"
Similar:
gathering in of the crops
harvesting
harvest time
harvest home
reaping
picking
collecting
garnering
ingathering
gleaning
culling
verb
gather (a crop) as a harvest.
"after harvesting, most of the crop is stored in large buildings"

How many times have we had an individual come here, and in his first post says:

I have just returned from my first fantastic African safari.

I harvested a Gold Medal striped donkey, a Gold Medal Gold wildebeest, a Silver Medal black impala and so on.


When I see that, I think, what the hell has harvesting got to do with hunting?

Here we have a bloody idiot who has no business firing a gun at anything that moves!

A perfect example of a Future SCI Inner Circle Distinguish Member!

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
How many times have we had an individual come here, and in his first post says:

I have just returned from my first fantastic African safari.

I harvested a Gold Medal striped donkey, a Gold Medal Gold wildebeest, a Silver Medal black impala and so on.


When I see that, I think, what the hell has harvesting got to do with hunting?

Here we have a bloody idiot who has no business firing a gun at anything that moves!

A perfect example of a Future SCI Inner Circle Distinguish Member!

Saeed -

I am not defending SCI here. When wrote a few articles for them, in their submissions guidelines, do not use the word Harvest for killing. So they understand it’s not the right term. Through my prism, new international hunters use that in an “effort” to be careful not to offend anyone.