The police officer's dilemma: using ethnicity to disambiguate potentially threatening individuals.

Full Abstract

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.

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Author information

Author/s: Correll, Joshua (J); Park, Bernadette (B); Judd, Charles M (CM); Wittenbrink, Bernd (B);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Colorado at Boulder, 80309-0345, USA. jcorrell(-atsign-)psych.colorado.edu

Grants: R01-45049 (Agency:PHS HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Journal of personality and social psychology (J Pers Soc Psychol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Dec; vol 83 (issue 6) : pp 1314-29

Dates: Created 2002/12/25; Completed 2003/06/24; Revised 2008/11/21;

PMID: 12500813, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Analysis of Variance
Dangerous Behavior
Decision Making - physiology
Ethnic Groups - psychology
Female
Firearms
Humans

Humans
Male
Police
Prejudice
Reaction Time - physiology
Signal Detection, Psychological - physiology
Students - psychology
Video Games - psychology

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