Black & Dangerous (Part 4 of 4): Stereotypes can produce tragic results

Dr. Anthony Greenwald (UW - Department of Psychology) explains how racial stereotypes can influence decision-making in police officers. Several virtual reality experiments were conducted containing simulated criminals (with guns), police officers (with guns), and citizens (holding harmless objects). The test takers were to respond appropriately to criminals (simulate shooting), fellow police officers (signal safety), or harmless citizens (no action). The results reveal that Blacks were shot incorrectly more than Whites. The study concludes that race can affect ones ability to discriminate between a harmless object and a weapon & that race can cause one to respond as if a weapon is present.

Additional Research Information:

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 39, 399-405)
Targets of Discrimination: Effects of race on responses to weapons holders (pdf format)
http://bit.ly/1Qzk3M


Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 87, No. 6, 876-893)
Seeing Black: Race, Crime, and Visual Processing (pdf format)
http://bit.ly/8ROvZ

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 94, No. 2, 292-306)
Not Yet Human: Implicit Knowledge, Historical Dehumanization, and Contemporary Consequences (pdf format)
http://bit.ly/cTNFt0

For related videos on 4TruthAndJustice also see:

Welsing on FTP-Part1C: I thought he had a weapon...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edt2BvFvwdg

Lethal Weapon: When what you watch on TV begins to matter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyrsy5goGiw

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