Heather Kleider-Offutt, associate professor of psychology at Georgia State University and researcher in cognitive psychology, is available to discuss the psychology behind decision-making processes used by police officers in police-involved shootings.
Kleider-Offutt, chair of the university’s Cognitive Sciences program, has performed extensive research into the subject, examining the decision-making processes involved when a police officer shoots a suspect, including ethnicity, stereotypes, the ability to multi-task and heightened emotions.
Kleider-Offutt explained:
“Interest in the decision-making processes used by police officers in the field stems largely from tragic events in which unarmed Black men were mistakenly shot and killed by police officers and there has been evidence that the Black-man-criminal-stereotype may play a role. Of course ethnicity is not the only factor that influences decisions to shoot. In my own work we find that high emotional arousal coupled with low working memory capacity (i.e. multi-tasking ability) also influences whether an officer will shoot an unarmed man. In our study there was no evidence of racial profiling, officers of all ethnicities made shooting errors (shot at unarmed men) to all suspects regardless of race. People need to keep in mind that officers make shoot decisions when accessing past experiences and the current context, if the situation is similar to what they encountered before when they have been in danger, they must decide the likelihood of getting shot vs. shooting a suspect.”
“These decision-making criteria and stereotypes that have attributed to shooting errors, are the same biases and decision criteria that people use who are not in law enforcement, much of these stereotypes are promoted thorough the media via new, movies etc. In my research I find that people of all ethnicities are more likely to misidentify a Black man with stereotypical Black features (e.g. wide nose, dark skin) as a drug dealer than a Black man with atypical Black features, the same is true if a White man has “Black” features. Moreover, men with Black features are more likely to be misidentified from a line up than a Black man with less stereotypical features. People are more likely to convict a Black man than a White man of a violent crime when their weighing evidence is challenging, this occurs regardless of the race of the mock juror.”
“The take-away message here is that people in the community and police officers all use stereotypes that may lead to errors in judgment when the stakes are high. This is a problem that occurs, in the field, in the courtroom and in community and is pervasive across ethnicities, Black and White people are aware of these stereotypes and it influences decisions. For change to occur systemic adjustments in how people are perceived is needed to change negative stereotypes.”
Additionally, Kleider-Offutt is a volunteer advisor and expert witness for the Georgia Innocence Project.
For more information about Kleider-Offutt and her research, visit http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwpsy/kleider.html.
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