The Police Officer's Dilemma: Using Ethnicity to Disambiguate Potentially Threatening Individuals

Using a simple videogame, the effect of ethnicity on shoot/ don't shoot decisions was examined. African American or White targets, holding guns or other objects, appeared in complex backgrounds. Participants were told to "shoot" armed targets and to "not shoot" unarmed targe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality and social psychology 2002-12, Vol.83 (6), p.1314-1329
Main Authors: Correll, Joshua, Park, Bernadette, Judd, Charles M, Wittenbrink, Bernd
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
African Americans
Analysis of Variance
Biological and medical sciences
Black People
Case studies
Criminology
Dangerous Behavior
Decision Making
Decision Making - physiology
Ethnic Groups - psychology
Ethnicity
Female
Firearms
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Male
Police
Police Personnel
Prejudice
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Racial and Ethnic Differences
Reaction Time - physiology
Signal Detection, Psychological - physiology
Social attribution, perception and cognition
Social psychology
Students - psychology
Video Games - psychology
White People
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Summary:Using a simple videogame, the effect of ethnicity on shoot/ don't shoot decisions was examined. African American or White targets, holding guns or other objects, appeared in complex backgrounds. Participants were told to "shoot" armed targets and to "not shoot" unarmed targets. In Study 1, White participants made the correct decision to shoot an armed target more quickly if the target was African American than if he was White, but decided to "not shoot" an unarmed target more quickly if he was White. Study 2 used a shorter time window, forcing this effect into error rates. Study 3 replicated Study 1's effects and showed that the magnitude of bias varied with perceptions of the cultural stereotype and with levels of contact, but not with personal racial prejudice. Study 4 revealed equivalent levels of bias among both African American and White participants in a community sample. Implications and potential underlying mechanisms are discussed.
ISSN:0022-3514
1939-1315
DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.83.6.1314