Training, Cognitive Control, and Racial Bias in the Decision to Shoot

拍摄决定中的训练、认知控制和种族偏见

• 批准号: 0642580
• 负责人: Joshua Correll
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-06-01 至 2011-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0642580&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Training; Cognitive; Control; Racial; Bias

This research explores racial bias in police officers' decisions to shoot by focusing on the impact of training and the importance of complexity of training stimuli. Racial biases influence police officers' willingness and readiness to shoot suspects. The investigators employ a videogame to examine racial bias in shoot/don't-shoot decisions with Black and White suspects who are either armed or unarmed. The experimental paradigm involves the presentation of images of men standing or crouching in various positions against several complicated backgrounds. Participants must identify a small object in the target's hand. Results of these exercises show that participants respond more quickly to targets consistent with stereotypes (armed Blacks, unarmed Whites) than to counter-stereotypic targets (armed Whites, and unarmed Blacks). In addition, these results show that participants set a more lenient threshold for the decision to shoot Black rather than White targets. That is, they are more willing to open fire when the target is Black. Importantly, the PIs' recent work shows that training minimizes racial bias in the Signal Detection threshold such that novices show pronounced bias, but highly trained individuals (police & "expert" participants) do not. Interestingly, training does not affect bias in reaction times as experts and novices both respond more slowly to counter-stereotypic than to stereotypic targets. It therefore seems that experts show some evidence of stereotype-based processing (which delays their responses to counter-stereotypic targets), but that their training enables them to override these stereotypes and, ultimately, execute decisions that are not affected by race. This research seeks to examine the processes through which training may reduce bias. The PIs contend that experts learn to extract task-relevant information from the visual field and use it to guide their decisions. The first section of the research program tests whether training can promote attention and effort. In the second section, whether training (and the control it fosters) can override racial stereotypes is examined. The final set of studies attempts to impair cognitive control through cognitive load, fatigue and fear. By compromising the mechanisms through which training operates, these manipulations should exacerbate bias even among experts. Findings should provide evidence of the conditions under which police officers' capacities are most likely to be impaired. The issues under consideration in this research are interesting and important and the findings are likely to have a significant impact in real-world settings. Together with the obvious educational impacts, the work has important implications for training programs in various domains.

这项研究通过关注训练的影响和训练刺激的复杂性的重要性来探索警察射击决策中的种族偏见。种族偏见影响警察射杀嫌疑人的意愿和准备。调查人员使用一款视频游戏来检查在与携带武器或手无寸铁的黑人和白人嫌疑人进行枪击/不枪击决定时的种族偏见。实验范式包括在几个复杂的背景下呈现男性以不同姿势站立或蹲下的图像。参与者必须识别目标手中的一个小物体。这些练习的结果表明，参与者对符合刻板印象的目标(武装黑人、手无寸铁的白人)的反应比对反刻板印象的目标(武装白人和手无寸铁的黑人)更快。此外，这些结果表明，参与者对射击黑人而不是白人目标的决定设定了更宽松的门槛。也就是说，当目标是黑人时，他们更愿意开火。重要的是，PIS最近的研究表明，培训可以最大限度地减少信号检测阈值中的种族偏见，这样新手就会表现出明显的偏见，但训练有素的人(警察和专家参与者)则不会。有趣的是，培训并不影响反应时间的偏差，因为专家和新手对反刻板印象的反应都比对刻板印象的目标反应慢。因此，专家似乎表现出一些基于刻板印象的处理(这会推迟他们对反刻板印象目标的反应)的证据，但他们的培训使他们能够推翻这些刻板印象，最终执行不受种族影响的决定。这项研究试图考察培训可以减少偏见的过程。PI认为，专家们学习从视野中提取与任务相关的信息，并使用这些信息来指导他们的决策。研究计划的第一部分测试培训是否能促进注意力和努力。在第二部分中，研究了培训(及其培养的控制力)是否可以超越种族刻板印象。最后一组研究试图通过认知负荷、疲劳和恐惧来损害认知控制。通过损害培训的运作机制，这些操纵甚至应该加剧专家之间的偏见。调查结果应提供证据，证明警察的能力在何种情况下最有可能受损。这项研究中考虑的问题很有趣，也很重要，研究结果可能会在现实世界中产生重大影响。与明显的教育影响一起，这项工作对各个领域的培训计划具有重要影响。