develop our rapid decision making with training and
experience.
Are extreme arousal and mind-blindness inevitable under
conditions of stress? Of course not. De Becker, whose firm
provides security for public figures, puts his bodyguards
through a program of what he calls stress inoculation. “In our
test, the principal [the person being guarded] says, ‘Come here,
I hear a noise,’ and as you come around the corner — boom! —
you get shot. It’s not with a real gun. The round is a plastic
marking capsule, but you feel it. And then you have to continue
to function. Then we say, ‘You’ve got to do it again,’ and this
time, we shoot you as you are coming into the house. By the
fourth or fifth time you get shot in simulation, you’re okay.” De
Becker does a similar exercise where his trainees are required
to repeatedly confront a ferocious dog. “In the beginning, their
heart rate is 175. They can’t see straight. Then the second or
third time, it’s 120, and then it’s 110, and they can function.”
That kind of training, conducted over and over again, in
combination with real-world experience, fundamentally changes
the way a police officer reacts to a violent encounter.
Mind reading, as well, is an ability that improves with
practice. Silvan Tomkins, maybe the greatest mind reader of