TARGET RACE AND SHOOTING PERFORMANCE THE INFLUENCE OF TARGET RACE ON SPLIT-SECOND SHOOTING DECISIONS IN SIMULATED SCENARIOS: A CANADIAN PERSPECTIVE A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirement of the degree Doctorate of Philosophy by Alyssa Taylor Department of Psychology Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada ©2011 Alyssa Taylor Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-83227-1 Our file Notre rGference ISBN: 978-0-494-83227-1 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduce, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1*1 Canada TARGET RACE AND SHOOTING PERFORMANCE ii Abstract Research in the U.S. has indicated that community members often show a negative Black bias when deciding to "shoot" Black versus White targets in simulated shooting tasks, but police officers often fail to show this bias. Three studies were conducted using a shooting task similar to the task used in previous research to examine whether this Black bias was present in the shoot/don't shoot decisions of Canadian participants. In addition, factors that were likely to increase or decrease the degree of racial bias in such decisions were examined. Study 1 (n = 146) found that samples of students, police recruits, and police officers displayed a White bias rather than a Black bias in their shoot/don't shoot decisions. Study lb {n = 74) indicated that this finding was not attributable to the specific instructions provided to participants before they made their shoot/don't shoot decisions, which differed slightly from previous research, in that the purpose of the research was more salient. Study 2 (« = 130) introduced scenes that varied by complexity to students, police recruits, and police officers. As expected, and consistent with Study 1, this study demonstrated that a White bias existed in the shooting decisions of participants and that this bias was exacerbated under conditions of high complexity. Finally, Study 3 (n = 120) demonstrated that student participants exhibited a White shooting bias even when attempts were made to reduce the bias using an implementation intention training technique, which has been shown to reduce racial biases in previous studies. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed, focusing primarily on potential reasons for the White shooting bias and what the bias might mean for use of force training. Directions for future research are also suggested. TARGET RACE AND SHOOTING PERFORMANCE iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Craig Bennell. His support was critical from inception and throughout this research project; in particular the boosts in morale throughout data collection, and his copious feedback during the writing process. This has ensured a quality of work that 1 could not have envisioned nor achieved on my own. I consider myself privileged for having the opportunity to work with him. I offer my sincere gratitude to all committee members for their time and thoughtful insights - Drs. Shelley Brown, Evelyn Maeder, Aaron Doyle, and Matthew Sharps. I would like to thank Ramona Morris and the Ontario Police College for their hospitality and kindness, as well as all of the police participants. Also, I acknowledge funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, as this research would otherwise not have been possible. Thank you to Dr. Kevin Nunes for his efforts and to Jordan Schoenherr and Kelly Babchishin for their invaluable programming ability. I must thank Etelle Bourassa for being truly wonderful throughout my degree. Her support was only rivaled by my Police Research Lab colleagues. I could not have asked for a group of women as strong, smart, and encouraging to call my friends. I am grateful to my friend Dr. April McGrath, as her stoicism throughout her degree was an inspiration for me. Likewise, I thank my sister, Davina, for her countless encouragements that always left me laughing. I have the utmost love and appreciation for my parents, Ruth and Rod. Their dedication to my academic pursuit and motivational words were tireless. Lastly, to my love, Justin, this success is shared with you. Your positivity, patience, and thoughtfulness were unmatched and endless - and the best part is that our happiness and adventures together have only just begun. TARGET RACE AND SHOOTING PERFORMANCE iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents iv List of Tables xi List of Figures xiii List of Appendices xvi Chapter 1. Introduction 1 General Stereotype Research 5 What are Stereotypes? 5 Where do Stereotypes Come From? 6 When do People Act on Stereotypes? 9 Stereotypes of Black Individuals 10 Sources of the Black Stereotype 12 Influence of Black Racial Stereotypes 14 Racial Stereotypes and Shooting Behaviour 17 Automatic and Controlled Processes 20 Examining these Processes using Signal Detection Analysis 21 Factors that Influence Automatic and Controlled Processes 26 Racial Stereotypes 27 Experience with Shooting Tasks 30 Task Difficulty 33 Training to Improve Performance on the Shooting Task 35 TARGET RACE AND SHOOTING PERFORMANCE v Training Strategies to Reduce the Racially Biased Shooting Decisions 36 Implementation Intentions and the Shooting Task 38 Summary 40 Chapter 2. The Influence of Police Experience in a Simulated Shooting Task (Study 1) 42 Purpose 42 Method 42 Pilot Work 42 Participants for Pilot Work 42 Procedure for Pilot Work 43 Manipulation Check of Pilot Work 43 Participants 45 Measures 46 The shooting task 46 Measure of cognitive load 47 Explicit stereotype measures 48 Measure of motivation to control prejudice 49 Implicit stereotype measure 49 Demographic questionnaire 52 Procedure 53 Hypotheses 53 Results 56 TARGET RACE AND SHOOTING PERFORMANCE vi Preliminary Data Screening 56 Missing data 56 Outliers 57 Normality 58 Homogeneity of variance 60 Main Analyses 61 Signal detection 61 Reaction time 64 Error rates 67 Preliminary analyses of cognitive load and stereotype measures 70 Correlational and moderator analysis 76 Discussion 82 Explanations for Shooting Performance Results 82 Signal detection 82 Reaction time 85 Error rates 87 Cognitive load ratings and stereotype measures 88 Potential Explanation for a White (not Black) Bias 91 A Canadian versus American sample 91 Participant instructions for the shooting task 93 Extending Study 1 to Examine Issues Around Participant Instructions 95 TARGET RACE AND SHOOTING PERFORMANCE vii Chapter 3. An Exploratory Study on the Influence of Instructional Sets on Racial Biases in a Simulated Shooting Task (Study lb) 96 Purpose 96 Method 96 Participants 96 Measures 97 Procedure 98 Research Question 99 Results 100 Preliminary Data Screening 100 Main Analyses 100 Signal detection 100 Reaction time 103 Error rates 105 Discussion 108 Chapter 4. The Influence of Scene Complexity on a Racial Bias in a Simulated Shooting Task (Study 2) 110 Purpose 110 Method 110 Pilot Work 110 Manipulation Check for Complexity Photo Stimuli Ill Participants 111 Measures 112 TARGET RACE AND SHOOTING PERFORMANCE viii Procedure 112 Hypotheses 113 Results 115 Preliminary Data Screening 115 Main Analyses 115 Signal detection 115 Reaction time 121 Error rates 128 Preliminary analyses of cognitive load and stereotype measures 134 Correlational and moderator analysis 139 Discussion 142 Explanations for Shooting Performance Results 143 Signal detection 143 Reaction time 145 Error rates 147 Cognitive load ratings and stereotype measures 148 Chapter 5. The Effectiveness of an Implementation Intention Strategy at Reducing a Racial Bias in a Simulated Shooting Task (Study 3) 149 Purpose 149 Method 149 Participants 149 Measures 149 Procedure 150 TARGET RACE AND SHOOTING PERFORMANCE ix Hypotheses 151 Results 153 Preliminary Data Screening