Threat is Distinct from Valence as a Source of Biased Shoot Behaviors toward Black Men

在美国，黑人男性被警察射杀的风险相对高于拉丁裔、亚裔美国人或白色男性。解决对黑人的负面信念是一个过于简单化的解决方案，因为对许多群体存在负面信念，但警察枪击事件对黑人的影响相对于其他种族和民族的男子。这个项目研究是否射击的行为发生迅速和频繁对黑人男性目标，因为一个自动的心理协会连接黑人男子和威胁，而不是因为一般的负面偏见。这个想法是由一个模型指导的，该模型区分了威胁（伤害风险）和消极效价（不喜欢）在对他人的反应中的作用。威胁与效价的区别提供了一个更微妙的理解的维护，普遍性，并最终表达的反应，有助于反黑人射手的行为。最近的事件已经清楚地表明了反黑人偏见的潜在致命后果。该项目包括一系列研究，通过使用最先进的判断任务，生理反应和射击行为评估人们在沉浸式虚拟现实射击任务中的自动心理联想。其中几项研究测量了人们对黑人与白色与威胁与消极的关联，并测试了这些关联的相对强度如何直接预测射击行为。一项研究依赖于创建关于不熟悉的目标群体的新关联，以确定威胁关联是否会更普遍地驱动射击行为，而不仅仅是与黑人男性的关联。最后一项研究破坏了黑人男性与威胁的心理联系（与破坏一般的黑人消极联系相比），以确定这是否会减少基于种族的射击行为。PI与几个警察局建立了联系，让警官参与研究，并在警察部门中传播研究结果和反馈意见。该项目提供了一个坚定的理解，如何威胁协会有助于基于种族的射手偏见，并提出了一种方法，通过它开始纠正这种偏见的负面影响。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Black men confront a higher relative risk of being shot by police officers than do Latinos, Asian-American men, or White men in the US. Addressing negative beliefs about Black men is an overly simplistic solution because negative beliefs exist about many groups, and yet police shootings disproportionally affect Black men relative to men of other races and ethnicities. This project examines whether the act of shooting occurs quickly and frequently against Black male targets because of an automatic mental association linking Black men and threat, rather than because of a general negative bias. This idea is guided by a model that distinguishes the role of threat (risk of harm) from negative valence (disliking) in reactions to others. The threat vs. valence distinction provides a more nuanced understanding of the maintenance, pervasiveness, and ultimate expression of reactions that contribute to anti-Black shooter behavior. A greater understanding of race-based shooter bias is vital in the present where recent events have made clear the potential deadly consequences of anti-Black prejudice.The project includes a series of studies that assess automatic mental associations that people have by using state-of-the-art judgment tasks, physiological responses, and shoot behaviors as assessed in an immersive virtual reality shooting task. Several of the studies measure the associations that people have of Black vs. White with threat vs. negativity and test how the relative strength of these associations directly predict shooting behavior. One study relies on the creation of novel associations about unfamiliar target groups to determine if threat associations drive shooting behavior more generally, beyond associations with Black men. A final study disrupts mental associations of Black men with threat (vs. disrupting general Black-negative associations) to determine whether this reduces race-based shooting behavior. The PI has established connections with several police stations to involve officers as research participants and to disseminate findings and feedback among police departments. The project provides a firm understanding of how threat associations contribute to race-based shooter bias and suggests a means by which to begin to redress the negative repercussions of such biases.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.