Just as the APA chose to embrace the Bush Administration's "war on terror" and its claim that psychologists help to keep detention and interrogation operations "safe, legal, ethical, and effective," the APA appears comfortable -- at least in its silence -- with the Obama Administration's claim that U.S. drone policy is "legal, ethical, and wise." It's unsurprising that the word "safe" doesn't appear in this latest catch phrase. After all, these drones go by names like "Predator" and "Reaper."
Indeed, it would seem that APA may be eager to increase the DoD's funding for drone-related psychological research. Every year, the APA offers testimony before government appropriations committees here in Washington, DC. Often those APA members selected to provide testimony are also employees of HumRRO, a defense contractor that has received tens of millions of defense dollars over the past decade. The president of HumRRO, Bill Strickland, currently sits on the APA's Board of Directors. HumRRO's own board of directors is chaired by the former long-time senior counsel for the APA (James McHugh) and the vice-chair is APA's long-time former chief financial officer (Charles McKay).
It is difficult to obtain detailed information about the work that psychologists are involved in related to drone operations, especially when that work is classified. But we do know, for example, that psychologists are involved in conducting research with drone pilots. One area involves figuring out which skills and attributes make for a top-notch pilot. This research includes examining how the pilot's belief system and "moral motivation" may negatively affect his performance when it comes to the deployment of weapons.
Another research area was described by Air Force psychologist Mark Draper this way: "We're actively exploring how different groups might counter our drones so that we can make our drones stronger"And the next generation will be stronger and more capable to operate in what we call 'denied environments' where they're a lot tougher to fly-in than where we're flying now." This perhaps means Iran, as compared to Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Yemen. The same team is also conducting research on how many drones a single operator can effectively control simultaneously.
A third research area has psychologists involved in looking into ways to reduce the high levels of stress, PTSD, depression, and substance abuse among drone operators. According to one account, there is a current project focused on developing a Siri-like user interface. The goal is to anthropomorphize the drone so that the pilot feels less responsible for the death and destruction wrought.
It is not known whether psychologists are involved in the U.S. drone program in other ways as well, such as providing analysis related to what are called "signature strikes" that target individuals based on their "suspicious" behavioral patterns; or assessing and influencing public support for drones in the U.S.; or working with drone manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, and Northrup Grumman in developing or marketing their products to the government. We do know that these huge defense contractors are private sector partners at university research enterprises like the University of North Dakota's Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Center of Excellence, where psychologists are among the core faculty.
To conclude, weaponized unmanned drones (and domestic surveillance drones to a lesser extent, and fully autonomous drones sometime in the future) should be a source of serious ethical examination by our profession -- because of their profound psychological impact, especially on communities of innocent civilians; because of the roles psychologists play or may play in their development and use; and because of deep questions raised regarding psychological dimensions and consequences of drone warfare more broadly, such as whether wars will be more likely and more frequent if we become enthralled with the prospect of risk-free killing from afar. It is not too late for the APA's leadership to foster such crucial discussions, but at this point unfortunately they seem very unlikely to do so. Thank you.
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