The public's dilemma: race and political evaluations of police killings

This paper explores perceptions of the killings of African-Americans by police officers. We show how characteristics of the victim, officer and surrounding environment, as well as political cues, shape such perceptions. In the first study, we employ a conjoint survey experiment, wherein subjects are...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPolitics, groups & identities Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 101 - 128
Main Authors Porter, Ethan V., Wood, Thomas, Cohen, Cathy
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 01.01.2021
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
African Americans
Black Lives Matter movement
Cues
experiments
Fictitious
Murders & murder attempts
Perceptions
Police
political psychology
Public opinion
Race
Racism
social psychology
Stereotypes
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Summary:This paper explores perceptions of the killings of African-Americans by police officers. We show how characteristics of the victim, officer and surrounding environment, as well as political cues, shape such perceptions. In the first study, we employ a conjoint survey experiment, wherein subjects are exposed to descriptions of hypothetical police killings. Focusing on subjects who score high on the Symbolic Racism Scale (SRS), we identify what leads such subjects to view shootings as more justified. We replicate and extend these effects in a second study in which subjects read fictitious newspaper articles. We find that exposing high SRS subjects to primes related to Black Lives Matter can decrease their belief in shootings' justifiability.
ISSN:2156-5503
2156-5511
DOI:10.1080/21565503.2018.1528162