Doctoral Dissertation Research: Exploring the Effects of Stereotype Threat in Police Encounters: Why Innocent African Americans are at Risk of Being Targeted as Suspects

博士论文研究：探索警察遭遇中刻板印象威胁的影响：为什么无辜的非裔美国人面临成为嫌疑人的风险

• 批准号: 1123058
• 负责人: Bette Bottoms
• 金额: $ 1.39万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-07-15 至 2012-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1123058&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Exploring; Effects

This research tests a novel social psychological explanation which focuses on police-citizen interactions. Specifically, in police encounters, innocent Blacks might be concerned about being judged unfairly because of stereotypes depicting them as prone to crime. Such "stereotype threat" produces anxiety and arousal, leads individuals to manage their behavior, and increases demands on cognitive resources. Ironically, however, these correlates produce the same nonverbal behaviors that police use to distinguish liars from truth-tellers. Thus, threatened Blacks might be more likely than non-threatened Whites to behave in ways that police perceive as suspicious. The researchers will test whether stereotype threat and its correlates explain differences in the frequency with which Blacks and Whites engage in deceptive-looking behavior. Pre- and post-tests will assess whether a staged police encounter differentially affects Blacks' and Whites' feelings of stereotype threat, anxiety, physiological arousal, self-regulation, and cognitive load. Videotapes of the encounter will be coded to determine whether participants engaged in nonverbal behaviors commonly perceived as deceptive (e.g., gaze aversion, fidgeting).The unwarranted disparate treatment of different racial groups can undermine the legitimacy of the police and prevent them from being effective. Findings from the current research will inform future research on curbing Blacks' experiences of stereotype threat in police encounters and preventing effects on nonverbal behavior from translating into racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

本研究检验了一种新的社会心理学解释，它侧重于警察与公民的互动。具体而言，在警察遭遇中，无辜的黑人可能担心受到不公正的审判，因为刻板印象将他们描绘成容易犯罪的人。这种“刻板印象威胁”会产生焦虑和唤醒，导致个体管理他们的行为，并增加对认知资源的需求。然而，具有讽刺意味的是，这些相关性产生了警察用来区分说谎者和说真话者的非语言行为。因此，受到威胁的黑人可能比没有受到威胁的白人更有可能以警察认为可疑的方式行事。研究人员将测试刻板印象威胁及其相关因素是否能解释黑人和白人在欺骗性外表行为上的频率差异。前测试和后测试将评估一个阶段性的警察遭遇是否会不同地影响黑人和白人的刻板印象威胁，焦虑，生理唤醒，自我调节和认知负荷的感觉。会面的录像带将被编码，以确定参与者是否参与了通常被认为是欺骗性的非语言行为（例如，对不同种族群体的不必要的区别对待会破坏警察的合法性，使他们无法发挥效力。当前研究的结果将为未来的研究提供信息，以遏制黑人在警察遭遇中的刻板印象威胁体验，并防止非语言行为的影响转化为刑事司法系统中的种族差异。