Killology This article or section does not cite its references or sources . You can help Wikipedia by introducing appropriate citations . Killology is a neologism which attempts to define the study of the psychological and physiological effects of combat on humans . The term was invented by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman ret. in his 1995 book On Killing : The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society . Claims Grossman 's theory , based on the World War Two research of S.L.A. Marshall , is that most of the population deeply resists killing another human . Modern military training allegedly overrides this instinct , by : using man-shaped targets instead of bulls-eye targets practicing and drilling how soldiers would actually fight dispersing responsibility for the killing throughout the group displacing responsibility for the killing onto an authority figure , i.e. the commanding officer and the military hierarchy . ( See the Milgram experiment ) By the time of the United States involvement in the Vietnam War , says Grossman , 90 per cent of U.S. soldiers would fire their weapons at other people . The act of killing is psychologically traumatic for the killer , even more so than constant danger or witnessing the death of others . Grossman further argues that violence in television , movies and video games contributes to real-life violence by a similar process of training and desensitization . In On Combat ( Grossman 's sequel to On Killing , based on ten years of additional research and interviews ) he addresses the psychology and physiology of human aggression . External links Killology.com Categories : Articles lacking sources | Neologisms | Military education and training In other languages : Deutsch 