Fearlessness and courage: A replication experiment

An attempt was made to replicate the finding that decorated bomb-disposal operators show lower cardiac activity under stress than do comparable but non-decorated operators. The performance under stress of three groups of soldiers (decorated operators, non-decorated operators, less experienced soldiers) was assessed by behavioural, psychophysiological, and subjective measures. The original result, showing lower cardiac activity under stress among decorated operators, was reproduced. With minor exceptions, no group differences in behavioural performance or in subjective activity were found. The results strengthen the view that it is possible to identify physiological indices of fearlessness.