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Dehumanization of African Americans and Police Violence Themal I Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark Volume 2 Article 1 April 2016 Pulling the Trigger: Dehumanization of African Americans and Police Violence Themal I. Ellawala Clark University Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.clarku.edu/surj Part of the Cognition and Perception Commons, and the Social Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Ellawala, Themal I. (2016) "Pulling the Trigger: Dehumanization of African Americans and Police Violence," Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark: Vol. 2 , Article 1. Available at: https://commons.clarku.edu/surj/vol2/iss1/1 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Scholarly Collections & Academic Work at Clark Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark by an authorized editor of Clark Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Pulling the Trigger: Dehumanization of African Americans and Police Violence Cover Page Footnote The following research would not have reached fruition if not for the support, guidance, and editorial assistance of Dr. Andrew Stewart, at Clark University, Worcester MA. This review is available in Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark: https://commons.clarku.edu/surj/vol2/iss1/1 REVIEW PULLING THE TRIGGER: DEHUMANIZATION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS AND POLICE VIOLENCE Themal Ellawala ‘17 | Psychology Major Psychology ABSTRACT Police shootings and killing of African American targets has reached epidemic proportions and has captured the attention of the entire country. Research in social psychology has studied many dimensions of this layered issue, and has generated disparate fndings regarding the role of racial bias in police violence. Te process of implicit dehumanization of African Americans, especially youth, has been proposed as particularly salient in making shoot/don’t shoot decisions. Tis paper suggests that the paradigm of dehumanization could complete the understanding of racialized police violence and reconcile contradictory research fndings, while highlighting areas for future research. INTRODUCTION has contributed to this reform could augment our understand- Sandra Bland. Mya Hall. Tamir efort by exploring the various ing of racialized police violence. Rice. Michael Brown. Tey are dimensions of police-civilian Tis will be further emphasized four African Americans killed by interactions and the decision to by highlighting areas for future police ofcers since the beginning shoot (Correll, Park, Judd, & research. of 2014, part of an ever growing Wittenbrink, 2002; Greenwald, list of casualties. Analysis of the Oakes, & Hofman, 2003; Payne, RESEARCH ON RACIAL BIAS IN statistics on justifable homicides, 2001). However, an analysis of STATE-SANCTIONED VIOLENCE the term used to represent such the extant literature demonstrates Te stereotype of Black criminality deaths, reported by the FBI – that there are several missing has been studied for several which only about 750 of the links that need to be investigated decades (Allport & Postman, 17,000 law enforcement agencies further. Te construct of dehu- 1947; Devine, 1989; Duncan, contribute data to – shows that manization, which speaks to the 1976; Payne, 2001; Sagar & over a seven year period ending placing of others “outside the Schofield, 1980). Countless in 2012, an average of 96 Black boundary in which moral values, experiments have demonstrated targets were gunned down by rules, and considerations of fair- White America’s association of White police ofcers annually, ness apply” (Opotow, 1990, p. 1), African Americans with crime translating to approximately two may be particularly salient to the as one that is frequent, consistent, deaths per week (Johnson, Hoyer, study of racialized police violence and automatic (Payne, 2001; & Heath, 2014). Meanwhile, and has the potential to bridge Payne, Lambert, & Jacoby, 2002). controversy surrounds the FBI’s the gaps in the feld and unite Eberhardt, Gof, Purdie & Davies admission that over 50% of such disparate fndings. Tis review (2004) discovered a signifcant justifed homicide statistics have will begin by summarizing bi-directionality in this African gone unaccounted for over the the dominant lines of research American-crime association, past decade (McCarthy, 2015). on police violence in social such that being primed with the Te response of racial minorities psychology. It will then review concept of crime produced an to such violence in the form of the literature on the topic of attentional bias towards Black protests staged nationwide garnered dehumanization in situations of faces and vice versa. Te domi- signifcant media attention and police violence against African nant paradigm in the area of has galvanized the White House Americans, particularly how racialized police violence is exam- and the Department of Justice to processes of dehumanization ining shoot/don’t shoot decisions call for reforms in law enforce- may underpin decisions to shoot in virtual simulations, in which ment. Black civilians, and highlight how civilian participants are presented Social psychology, too, further study of this phenomenon with scenes and instructed to 02 PULLING THE TRIGGER: Themal Ellawala shoot only at armed targets both (Correll, Park, Judd, Witten- emotions (e.g. jealousy, sympathy, quickly and accurately. Such brink, & Sadler, 2007; Steinberg hope) to in-group and out-group studies have discovered a signif- & Scott, 2003). It is hypothesized members. It has been discovered cant efect of racial bias on shoot/ that such populations would that secondary emotions, which don’t shoot decisions (Correll, perform in qualitatively difer- are perceived to distinguish Park, Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2002; ent ways to civilians. However, humans from nonhumans, are Correll, Park, Judd, & Witten- the most recent review of shoot/ consistently denied to those brink, 2007; Correll, Urland, & don’t shoot literature (Mekawi & who don’t belong to one’s social Psychology Ito, 2006). A majority of these Bresin, 2015), analyzing 42 difer- group (out-group members) and studies found that participants ent studies, indicates that while preferentially attributed to mem- tended to shoot faster and more ample evidence exists for shooter bers of one’s own group (in-group accurately at an armed Black bias in general, the diferences in members; Demoulin, et al., 2004; man than an armed White man, shooter bias between civilian and Gaunt, Leyens, & Demoulin, while being slower and less law enforcement samples are not 2002; Leyens, et al., 2001). Gof accurate in responding to the as signifcant as is claimed to be. et al. (2008) expanded this “don’t shoot” command when Rather, this meta-analysis posits paradigm beyond primary and presented with an unarmed Black that factors such as stringency of secondary emotions to consider target compared to an unarmed gun laws and the racial diversity the history of African American- White target. If tenable, these of one’s geographic location have White relations in the United results complicate the logic of a signifcant impact on shooter States, and shed new light on the Stand Your Ground laws, which bias (permissive gun laws and implicit dehumanization of the remove the duty of civilians to more racially diverse cities former. Tis research maintains retreat before force is used in self- correlate with a greater shooter that historically-informed defense. Tese fndings suggest bias, which the authors use to representations of African that as civilians are more likely to explain part of the variance Americans as ape-like, less make shoot/don’t shoot decisions between the results of various phylogenetically advanced based on racial biases, such laws studies in the field). Thus, it is beings have an unconscious may carry dire consequences for safe to surmise that there is much efect on social perceptions, in people of color. Many have argued that is missing in our psycho- spite of the absence of any con- that this was the fate of Trayvon social understanding of police scious awareness of such an as- Martin, as Florida was the frst violence. One piece of this puzzle sociation. Tis seminal study set state to enact Stand Your Ground may very well be dehumanization. the foundation for much of the legislation (Coates, 2013). research that has been conducted However, a long-standing DEHUMANIZATION AND on the infuence of dehumani- controversy in this paradigm STATE-SANCTIONED VIOLENCE zation on the policing of Black of research is the existence of Dehumanization has long been citizens. studies that contradict these studied by historians, anthropol- Associating African findings, demonstrating null ogists, and philosophers, given its Americans more closely with the results and even a shooter bias use in justifying violence against ape metaphor enables individuals towards White targets (Cor- groups such as Jews in Nazi to deny them a human essence rell, Park, Judd, Wittenbrink, Germany and Africans in slavery (Goff, Eberhardt, Williams, & Sadler, 2007; Harmer, 2012; (Haslam & Loughnan, 2012). & Jackson, 2008). Tis carries Hunsinger, 2010; Taylor, 2011). However, it was the research of signifcant implications for the One proposed approach to Leyens (2001) on the attribution treatment of African Americans. reconciling these conficting of humanness that marked the Using several samples of pre- fndings is to move past recruit- beginning of the most recent wave dominately White undergraduate ing college student samples
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