The Quick and the Dead

Scientists at the University of Birmingham have been carrying out 'laboratory gunfights' to show that we move faster when we react to something in our environment than we do when we initiate the action ourselves. It is an idea inspired by cowboy movies, but in reality it's more useful for avoiding oncoming traffic. Funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Wellcome Trust, the research is published today (03 February 2010) in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Think of the Wild West of early Hollywood movies where the man who draws his gun first is the one to get shot at. This is what inspired the Nobel Laureate Niels Bohr to suggest that the intentional act of drawing and shooting is slower than the act of firing in response to another's initial action i.e. the 'quick draw' is the one responding to their opponent's action rather than the one initiating the dual. Dr Andrew Welchman, a BBSRC David Phillips Fellow at the University of Birmingham's School of Psychology, led the research. He said: "In our everyday lives, some of the movements we make come about because we decide to make them, while others are forced on us by reacting to events. Bohr's suggestion reflects this everyday intuition.