In 2012, US Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander John D. Porter, who went through the SCARS® Instructor program at Naval Special Warfare, tested the Offensive Mindset® for his master's thesis at the Naval Postgraduate School. The thesis lists no funding or sponsor, and it was approved by NPS faculty with help from Dr. Tory Higgins, a leading researcher on regulatory focus.
What was tested: 213 volunteers, mostly active-duty military, rolled dice to decide whether they received offensive instructions, defensive instructions, or none. Then they completed a timed shooting course in a first-person-shooter simulation, with the clock running and the volume turned up.
What was found: The group given offensive instructions cut their time by about 9 seconds (11%) from the first run to the second. The defensive group cut about 1 second. The result was statistically significant.
What the thesis also records:
Many people are misled into thinking this is only words, as if "blocking" a punch and "striking" it were the same thing. They aren't. In SCARS® analysis of power output, strikes delivered from a fully aggressive state produced about 35% more force than strikes delivered from a defensive, fear-based state. To outsiders it looks like hitting first. In fact it's the elimination of the hesitation that defensive commands produce.
See it for yourself. The study tested the words. The training is where you feel the difference, in your mind and in your body. Click here to learn more
We thank Lieutenant Commander Porter for conducting and publishing this research through the Naval Postgraduate School.
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