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Shaakirah Carr
Professor Abbott
Intro to Psychology
November 12, 2015
Racial Bias in the decision to shoot in a Multiethnic Context
The purpose of this experiment was to test college students and police
officers on racial bias in the decision to shoot in a multiethnic context. Examinations
were made on implicit racial biases on the position to shoot threatening targets. The
first experiment was based on the response times needed to choose the correct
target of each race whether armed or unarmed. Results from this examination
showed that college aged students reacted to shoot quicker and correctly to armed
Black targets and not to unarmed Latino, Asian, and Whites. The second experiment
examined implicit racial bias in reaction times among police officers. Results from
this showed the same results as college students; a quicker reaction to correctly
shoot armed or unarmed targets. Procedures in this study included creating a
multiethnic environment in a computer tasks. In the experiment, 69 undergraduate
students of the University of Colorado at Boulder were used as participants in the
study. 34 males and 30 females were used in the study as well. 75% of the
participants were white, 2% Black, 5% Asian, 3% Latino, 3% Native American and,
3% other. The participants were brought into rooms and told to quickly and correctly
respond to pictures of males on the viewed screen based on the type of object held.
Results from this first study revealed participants were more likely to shoot at black
target or a minority quicker than they would a white person. During the second part
of the experiment, officers whose job to choose whether to shoot or not to shoot,
were the participants. Intergroup attitudes was used as a reliable scale to see
whether the officer believed that discrimination against African Americans was a

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problem. Stereotypes was also used as a measure to view the participants belief
that one group was more aggressive than the other. Lastly, community
characteristics and demographics were used as a measurement as well. Officers
were asked to give information of their job history in the police force such as the
total number of years they had worked as an officer. They were also asked to
provide information regarding their gender, ethnicity, education and political views.
The procedure of this experiment called for the participants to attend a seminar and
complete a FPS task on the computer. After the task was completed, the officers
were paid and thanked for their participation. The results from this part of the
experiment differentiated in reaction time, signal detection analysis, racial bias
correlation, community characteristics, and officer beliefs. Regarding reaction times,
results found that there was no grotesque difference in the reaction times to shoot
armed or unarmed black or white. Signal detection versus all the other racial groups
resulted in police officials being able to discriminate weapons from white and black
targets that were nonthreatening. This suggested that the difference in the way that
minorities are policed is not due to discrimination of blacks. The researchers also
tested racial bias correlation and this proved that community characteristics and the
individual go hand in hand as being related to bias.
The media article was written to speak of the incident regarding the death of
Michael Brown; a young black male shot while unarmed. Research presented in this
article stated that studies have found that an African American is 4 times more
likely to end in death during or after an encounter with an officer than a white
person. Other research that examined the influence of a suspects race on the
officers reaction to shoot were also conducted. Results revealed that shooting
behaviors from the officer participants seemed to differ based on the race of the

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suspect. The main result indicated that when images of unarmed blacks were shown
they were more likely to be shot than unarmed white men. These results show that
unconscious racial prejudice can cause police officials to engage in a life or death
situation differently when race plays a part without realizing they are doing so.
The studies done in the article compared to the research were closely related.
The research showed that there was a significant main effect of race on the reaction
to shoot with blacks being an easier target than other races. In the media article,
the results found also claim that being black means that one is more likely to get
shot than a white male. This proves the correlation between both articles. Both the
research and the article proved that race plays a part in the reactions to shoot.
Based on the research and results found in the research article, the similar
results were found in the studies that were done in the media article. Although the
research article elaborated more than the research done in the media article, the
results were closely related and accurate. The one thing that was stated in the
research article that was not found in the media article is the result of black men
being shot in the FPS computer study did not differ from the number of unarmed
white men being shot. Other than this result found, both the research and the
results found from the media article and the research article were accurate. The
data from the media article is just as accurate as the data collected from the
research article.
The media article stuck solely on the results of the research results. Seeing
the results without knowing the procedures done to get the result can cause a one
track mind distorting the reaction to the article. This article was clearly made to
down the mistakes that police have made regarding black lives but if the

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participants, and the procedures used to get the found results that were stated, this
could have made the media article stronger and provide a more knowledge based
article instead of a more opinionated view of the subject. The article should have
also stated the name of the experiment done to add evidence to the results stated
in the media article.
Bias presented in this article is clear and easy to detect. The bias that is held
by the author is in favor of black lives. Evidence from the article help support this
claim. The bias for suspects and police officers is present in this article with the
suspect in favor. The author continues to talk about the wrong doing of the officer
throughout the article and the wrong doings of officers as a whole proving it with
results from research. Another bias found in this article is the bias of black men in
favor of black lives. For one, the writer defends the innocent black life that was
taken by saying the police had no right to shoot. The author gave scenarios in which
the officer would have been in the right to shoot but in this situation, the reaction to
shoot a suspect who surrendered and was unarmed was not right in any way.
Another bias seen was the bias of black and white. The author states at the end of
the article that the stereotyping of young black men as criminals is an everyday
struggle in America and that it is instilled in the American mind.

Work Cited
Sadler, Melody. S. (2012). The World is Not Blak and White: Racial Bias in the
Deciosin to Shoot in a
Multiethnic Context. Journal of Social Issues, 286 - 313.
Correll, Joshua. (2012). The World is Not Blak and White: Racial Bias in the Deciosin
to Shoot in a
Multiethnic Context. Journal of Social Issues, 286 - 313.
Judd, Charles. M. (2012). The World is Not Blak and White: Racial Bias in the
Deciosin to Shoot in a
Multiethnic Context. Journal of Social Issues, 286 - 313.
Park, Bernadette. (2012). The World is Not Blak and White: Racial Bias in the
Deciosin to Shoot in a
Multiethnic Context. Journal of Social Issues, 286 - 313.