Automatic Prejudice and Weapon Identification: A Study with Students and Police Officers
The objective of this study was to explore police officers’ beliefs, meaning whether a “crime priming” is capable of showing automatic prejudice in the identification of weapons and whether a crime reduction priming can mitigate it, seeking to understand which processes can make the expression of ra...
| Authors: | ; ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2023
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| In: |
Race and social problems
Year: 2023, Volume: 15, Issue: 2, Pages: 154-165 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Keywords: |
| Summary: | The objective of this study was to explore police officers’ beliefs, meaning whether a “crime priming” is capable of showing automatic prejudice in the identification of weapons and whether a crime reduction priming can mitigate it, seeking to understand which processes can make the expression of racism more evident. With that we conducted two experiments with police officers (N = 80) and university students (N = 77) randomly allocated to an experimental group subjected to crime priming. In the second experiment we submitted the groups to a criminal's rehabilitation priming. In Study 1, crime priming contributed to shorter response times for both guns and tools preceded by a black individual's face. Under rehabilitation priming, participants showed longer response times for both guns and tools, an effect intensified when preceded by a black individual's face. With regard to hits, more hits occurred for guns than for tools, a result unaffected by the experimental manipulation. With regard to hits, more hits occurred for gun than for tool, a result unaffected by the experimental manipulation. In the 500 ms time-limited phase (study 2), there was no effect of the priming types on response times, with only a higher hit rate for black individual's faces. With that, questions about the importance of replicating WIT results in a more mixed sample in which both the control group and the police officers group can be considered as coming from minorities (i.e. blacks and latinx). |
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| ISSN: | 1867-1756 |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s12552-022-09373-4 |