Study: People Faster to Shoot White [and Hispanic] Suspects than Black Suspects

[10x25mm]

Reason.com ran a story last week about an academic study at Washington State University which gauged peoples' reactions to armed assailants according to the assailant's race. This is one of those politically radioactive subjects which can get you into a lot of trouble, but it still deserves attention. It is an oft unspoken issue generating furious controversy in some shootings where self defense is invoked.

The most interesting finding of the study was that, even though black assailants provoked much greater fear in people, people hesitated to shoot black assailants for a longer period of time. Another interesting aside from the study was that "Participants were also more likely to shoot unarmed white suspects than black or Hispanic ones and more likely to fail to fire at armed black suspects." Given the recent spate of disputed self defense shootings, this study is food for thought:

http://reason.com/blog/2014/09/03/st...to-shoot-white

https://news.wsu.edu/2014/09/02/dead.../#.VAcn2GOKX_a

A new study in the Journal of Experimental Criminology finds in an experiment measuring the reactions of participants to various threatening situations that people tended to pull the trigger faster when confronted by armed white suspects. This sounds counterintuitive to most people (including me). A 2001 Bureau of Justice Statistics report (latest available) analyzed justifiable homicides and noted:

Felons justifiably killed by police represent a tiny fraction of the total population. Of the 183 million whites in 1998, police killed 225; of the 27 million blacks, police killed 127. While the rate (per million population) at which blacks were killed by police in 1998 was about 4 times that of whites, the difference used to be much wider: the black rate in 1978 was 8 times the white rate.

The BJS study also found that black suspects were also as likely to shoot at police as be shot at.

In the deadly force experiments participants (85 percent white) face a life-sized HD video screen on which the stance, clothing, hand motions, objects being held, and race of suspects can all be modified. The subjects are hooked up to brain wave measuring devices and can respond using a laser gun. The press materials from Washington State University detailing the results report:

Participants in an innovative Washington State University study of deadly force were more likely to feel threatened in scenarios involving black people. But when it came time to shoot, participants were biased in favor of black suspects, taking longer to pull the trigger against them than against armed white or Hispanic suspects...

[WSU researcher Lois] James’ study is a follow-up to one in which she found active police officers, military personnel and the general public took longer to shoot black suspects than white or Hispanic suspects. Participants were also more likely to shoot unarmed white suspects than black or Hispanic ones and more likely to fail to fire at armed black suspects.

“In other words,” wrote James and her co-authors, “there was significant bias favoring blacks where decisions to shoot were concerned.”

When confronted by an armed white person, participants took an average of 1.37 seconds to fire back. Confronted by an armed black person, they took 1.61 seconds to fire and were less likely to fire in error. The 240-millisecond* difference may seem small, but it’s enough to be fatal in a shooting.

This hesitation occurred even though the electroencephalograph generally identified brain wave patterns indicating significantly greater threat responses against black suspects than white or Hispanic suspects. So then why the difference?

James and her team speculate:

This behavioral ‘counter-bias’ might be rooted in people’s concerns about the social and legal consequences of shooting a member of a historically oppressed racial or ethnic group.

Sometimes a social science study turns up something interesting.

Indeed. It would be interesting to find out whether a similar effect exists when blacks and Hispanics are confronted by other/same races, something which could not be answered by this WSU study due to its subject sampling limits.

[Siamese]

Who needs a study? Just look at Chicago.

[JDG]

Who the hell wants Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson coming to their town to stir things up!

[HKmanlp1]

Well if they polled me it would have come out completely different.

[Freetime]

If it came to a life threatening situation I would not worry about color, race or gender. A POS is a POS and all deserve equal consideration as far as my response! I wouldn't want to considered a Racist when it comes to dealing out justice that a POS deserves. LMAO. Polls are mostly a meaningless waste of time as far as I'm concerned.

[nrich1979]

Brain matter is grey
Blood is red
Skull is bone colored


It is what is inside that counts