{"id":423,"date":"2014-09-26T19:52:23","date_gmt":"2014-09-26T19:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=423"},"modified":"2015-10-13T19:04:00","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T19:04:00","slug":"think-fast-policing-race-and-implicit-bias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2014\/09\/26\/think-fast-policing-race-and-implicit-bias\/","title":{"rendered":"Think Fast: Policing, Race, and Implicit Bias"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Recent shootings in Missouri<\/a>, Utah<\/a>, and South Carolina<\/a> keep us asking how racial bias affects the use of deadly force by the police. How and why\u00a0does differential treatment by race continue to persist in law enforcement? Part of the answer has to do with the culture and history of policing (see our pervious post Reflecting on Ferguson<\/span><\/a>). Another part involves what psychologists call \u201cimplicit biases.\u201d Implicit biases are the unconscious ways in which people treat others differently. Studies of implicit bias have consistently shown that people tend to prefer white to African-American, young to old, and heterosexual to gay. Many social scientists conclude these implicit biases reflect societal biases, because continuous exposure to these assumptions\u00a0in media and daily interactions leads to biased cognitive associations like \u201cwhite-innocent\u201d or \u201cblack-criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Implicit biases are most clearly exposed when people are forced to make quick decisions, like when an officer is deciding to shoot or holster their weapon.<\/h5>\n