• Psychological motives?
• Policing
  • psychology of racial bias
  • structure of racial bias

Social Identity Theory and Relational Models Theory …

• describe why individuals have psychological motive to commit violence
• predictions about what sorts of circumstances will trigger these motives
• implication is that violence is intentionally ethnic

But when we discussed what “ethnic violence” is…

• violence need not be “intentionally” ethnic
• especially when violence constitutes the ethnic boundary

When we considered race and police use-of-force in the US, we saw that:

1. Racial disparities in frequency (Black Americans more likely to be victims)
2. Disparities do not appear to be due to statistical discrimination

statistical discrimination:

inequality that exists between demographic groups even though economic agents (consumers, workers, employers, etc.) are rational and non-prejudiced.

• Discrimination can be “rational” if individual attributes are hard to observe (e.g. propensity toward crime) while group membership is observable and different groups have different behaviors on average.
• Discrimination is “rational” if relevant considerations (threat, criminal activity) objectively correlate with group membership

When we considered race and police use-of-force in the US, we saw that:

1. Racial disparities in frequency (Black Americans more likely to be victims)
2. Disparities do not appear to be due to statistical discrimination
3. Estimates of discrimination are almost certainly underestimates

• How do you explain why there is this racial disparity?

taste-based discrimination:

inequality that exists in treatment demographic groups due to some gain/utility that agents gain by discriminating.

• racial hatred, SIT/in-group preference leads people to value discrimination
• ethnic discrimination is intentional and based on some kind of animus

https://www.projectimplicit.net/

click on:

• ‘Take a Test’
• then ‘I wish to proceed’ (bottom)
• ‘Weapons IAT’ (blue buttons)
• ‘decline to answer’ demographic questions

What does this test measure?

What do you think it can tell us about police use of force?

Assuming that people who hold a stereotype (“Black \(=\) Dangerous”) are quicker to respond when task is compatible with stereotype than when task is incompatible…

Then, score for Implicit Bias is:

\(\mathrm{\overbrace{Speed(Black+Tool) - Speed(Black+Weapon)}^{Positive \ if \ associates \ Black = Dangerous}}\)

\(-\)

\(\mathrm{\overbrace{Speed(White+Tool) - Speed(White+Weapon)}^{Negative \ if \ associates \ White = Safe}}\)

• What do you think this means?

Correll et al (2014) describe body of work on implicit bias in policing:

• policing simulation
• portray a person in “naturalistic setting”
• vary the race of the person
• vary whether person holds weapon, harmless object
• “player” of simulation, chooses to shoot, not shoot

Decision to shoot a function of perceived latent threat:

• do participants correctly detect weapon or not (sensitivity)
• do participants decide whether or not to shoot (criterion)

Participants tend to

• have no racial bias in sensitivity (recognizing weapons)
• have a lower criterion (greater perception of threat) for Black people

So, it could very well be that implicit stereotypes about threat and criminality drive racial disparities in police use of force.

• But different people behave differently

undergraduates:

• have racial biases in perceiving weapons
• have racial biases in perceived threat
• but with practice, can dramatically reduce bias

police officers

• do not have racial bias in perceived weapons (and fewer errors)
• do not have racial bias in perceived threat
• but have biased reaction times (faster to shoot armed Black person, slower to not shoot unarmed Black person)

These biased reaction times suggest police have to work to undo biases:

Racial bias can creep back in when…

• police are under greater cognitive load (real-world stress?)
• racial stereotypes are primed

Implicit biases come from and are activated by the structural context:

• cognitive schemas produced by media, schooling etc.
• stereotypes can be activated by media messages

Grosjean et al (In Press) examine the effect of Trump campaign rallies on racial bias in policing:

• probability that person stopped by police is Black.

Comparing counties with a rally to counties without a rally, before and after the rally…

• did counties with the rally see a greater increase in police stops of Black Americans?

• Implicit bias may also induce ethnic violence
  • violence constitutive of boundaries
• These implicit biases result of, amplified by structural conditions