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The World Is Not Black and White: Racial Bias in the Decision to Shoot in a Multiethnic Context
Author(s) -
Sadler Melody S.,
Correll Joshua,
Park Bernadette,
Judd Charles M.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2012.01749.x
Subject(s) - white (mutation) , context (archaeology) , racial bias , race (biology) , racial differences , psychology , asian americans , social psychology , demography , ethnic group , criminology , gender studies , sociology , political science , geography , biology , law , biochemistry , archaeology , gene
We examined implicit race biases in the decision to shoot potentially hostile targets in a multiethnic context. Results of two studies showed that college‐aged participants and police officers showed anti‐Black racial bias in their response times: they were quicker to correctly shoot armed Black targets and to indicate “don't shoot” for unarmed Latino, Asian, and White targets. In addition, police officers showed racial biases in response times toward Latinos versus Asians or Whites, and surprisingly, toward Whites versus Asians. Results also showed that the accuracy of decisions to shoot was higher for Black and Latino targets than for White and Asian targets. Finally, the degree of bias shown by police officers toward Blacks was related to contact, attitudes, and stereotypes. Overestimation of community violent crime correlated with greater bias toward Latinos but less toward Whites. Implications for police training to ameliorate biases are discussed.