Recreational Hunters on the Psychological Swing
Dissertation “Psychological-Sociological Differences Between Recreational Hunters and Non-Hunters”.
Recreational Hunters Rate Themselves as More Aggressive
The hypothesis was primarily confirmed that recreational hunters clearly rate themselves as more aggressive than non-hunters.
It can therefore be assumed that recreational hunters struggle to cope with the diminished opportunities for personal development in our time and attempt to sublimate the resulting tensions and aggression using such drastic methods. According to Fromm (1971), the sum of destructive tendencies is in direct proportion to the restriction of opportunities for expansive behaviour.
From a behaviourist standpoint, it is likely that recreational hunters experience recreational hunting and thus aggressive behaviours positively in the course of their socialisation. Through the pleasure derived from the kill and the recognition and respect of like-minded peers, aggressive behaviour is experienced as pleasurable.
Passion for Hunting as a Manifestation of Aggressive Behavioural Tendencies
43.4% of recreational hunters state that they engage in recreational hunting for traditional reasons, and 56.12% regard this reason as at least an important argument in its favour.
Recreational hunters and non-hunters do not differ in their connection to nature. This contradicts the arguments put forward by recreational hunters and general expectations.
In summary, these observations support the assumption that a high tendency towards aggressive behaviour is the motive for engaging in recreational hunting, and that recreational hunters, through their internal attribution, increasingly believe they are able to intervene in natural processes and wish to manipulate them.
Attempts to Characterise Recreational Hunters
The popularity of recreational hunting increases exclusively and highly significantly with passion for hunting, while interest in wildlife management and enjoyment of nature as reasons for hunting bear no relation to the popularity of recreational hunting. With increasing aggressiveness, passion for hunting increases.
44.15% of all recreational hunters state that they would under certain circumstances be prepared to inflict wildlife severe Pain to inflict, and 32.8% of all recreational hunters report having shot more than 20 animals in the last three years.
Trophies as symbols of victory
93% of recreational hunters report having trophies hanging at home. Trophies are the weapons of wild animals in the fight against rivals. The originally Greek word means “symbol of victory.” They are emblematic of the defensiveness and superiority of the recreational hunter over the animal killed.
It was found that with increasing passion for hunting and decreasing connection to nature, the signs and symbols demonstrating membership of the recreational hunter class are worn more frequently.
Horst E. Richter understands the fascination with weapons as a sublimation of pre-pubertal omnipotence desires and as an expression of aesthetically glorified phallic fantasies of grandeur.
Ursula Grohs (* 5 July 1958 in Graz) is an Austrian health and child psychologist, who developed the Psychodynamic Model Training (abbreviated: PDM) in 2003. Source: Psychological-Sociological Differences Between Recreational Hunters and Non-Hunters
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Psychology of recreational hunting we put research, motives and social consequences into perspective. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
