Concurrents – Environmental Psychology: Security Psychology
With terrorism attacks becoming more frequent worldwide, increased attention is being focused on structure security. Even before the relatively recent discussions of secure design, cognitive scientists have been investigating psychological responses to it. Some of the highlights of those studies are discussed below. Grosskopf investigated responses to active and passive antiterrorism design. People visiting a county courthouse were shown images of different sorts of security features. Some pictures included clearly recognizable security features (guards and screening stations), while others portrayed concealed security features. The more visible security features made the respondents feel safer, and study participants reported they thought the likelihood of theft, battery or sexual assault to be three to six times lower in the areas with obvious safety measures. Next, Grosskopf made terrorism top of mind with college students and showed them photos of seven security areas, four with visible security measures (guard with guns, security cameras, razor …
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