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The Effects of Implicit Bias in Simulated Police-Public Interactions: An Experimental Study

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Abstract

The objective of this manuscript is to explore demographic, legal, and situational considerations on use-of-force decisions. The influence of implicit bias was measured in real time using a police training simulator in an experimental study with university students (n = 115). Participants were randomly assigned to one of four scenarios which varied according to the on-screen actor’s race (e.g., White/Black) and behavior (i.e., compliance/attack). Bivariate and multivariate regression models were used to estimate the effect of implicit bias on the decision to consider and use simulated lethal force. Actor behavior, independent of actor race, most influenced participant responses. These results suggest that simulated police-public interactions offer significant value in the assessment of implicit bias, particularly in the context of use-of-force decisions. Furthermore, absence of bias is inconsistent with current news and social media narratives about the existence of bias in officer decision-making.

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Data Availability

Data are available on request from the corresponding author, where appropriate.

Notes

  1. Use-of-force can be verbal, psychological, and physical coercion used during police officer responsibilities.

  2. This may be due, in part, to the lingering effects of the global pandemic and de-policing (Deuchar et al. 2021).

  3. Use-of-force includes threat of force, handcuffing, pushing, grabbing, hitting, kicking, use of chemical or pepper spray, use of an electroshock weapon, pointing or firing a gun, and use of another type of physical force by the police (see Tapp and Davis 2022, Table 3).

  4. Unarmed, however, does not mean that the individual was not dangerous. Among the cases identified as unarmed (n = 38) included events in which the deceased was driving a vehicle towards police when killed, another was choking an officer after taking and using the officer’s Taser against the officer (Washington Post 2023).

  5. In this regard, police training simulators differ from the real world, which has been described as having the omnipresence of danger.

  6. The handgun was placed on a stool in front of the participant, since fitted duty belts could not be allocated to match every participant.

  7. Participants received instruction on how to correctly handle, aim, and fire the mock handgun. Instruction was minimal as to not prime participants to resort to use deadly force regardless of randomly assigned scenario.

  8. The supervisor was the same person throughout the study, and they followed a script. They were positioned behind the trainee and did not speak during the scenario.

  9. Shooting accuracy was not measured, since the discharge of a firearm constituted use of deadly force.

  10. The distribution of participant characteristics in the random assignment was explored, and few characteristics were found to be concentrated among the experimental conditions (not depicted). Participants, for example, who reported to be members of the College of Arts and Letters (n = 13, 27.7%, χ2 = 8.987) and College of Science (n = 22, 82.9%, χ2 = 10.643) were unevenly distributed among the scenarios with a White on-screen actor, respectfully. Similarly, participants that were firearm owners were particularly concentrated among scenarios with a White on-screen actor that complied (n = 10, 40.0%, χ2 = 13.337). Nevertheless, random assignment into the experimental conditions was largely successful, and these concentrations are not believed to greatly impact the interpretive value of these results.

  11. Despite suitability for multivariate analysis, participants from the College of Education (n = 1), with law enforcement status (n = 2), and those who self-identified with political views most consistent with libertarianism (n = 1) or non-mutually exclusive political views (n = 2), and/or self-identified as Asian (n = 2) or Native American (n = 1) were omitted from the forthcoming predictive model because their sample sizes lack generalizability.

  12. Cultural differences should not be interpreted as non-compliance by officers.

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  1. School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Rd., Boca Raton, FL, 33431, USA

    Scott Gardner, Seth Fallik, Adam Dobrin, Gabriel Cesar & Wendy Guastaferro

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  1. Scott Gardner
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  2. Seth Fallik
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Correspondence to Seth Fallik.

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Gardner, S., Fallik, S., Dobrin, A. et al. The Effects of Implicit Bias in Simulated Police-Public Interactions: An Experimental Study. J Police Crim Psych 39, 198–212 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-024-09643-4

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