PSYCH M165 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Stroop Effect, Executive Functions, P200
Weapon Bias
Abstract
• Race stereotypes can lead people to claim to see a weapon present when there is none
• Split second decisions magnify bias by limiting ability to control responses
• No intentional racism
• Split second decisions can show systematic biases that differ from considered decisions
Weapon Bias
• Participants must discriminate between guns and harmless objects and ignore the faces
• Sometimes flashed a white face, sometimes a black face
• Self paced condition: accuracy was high regardless of pace
o But detected guns faster for black face
• Black face readied people to detect a gun but did not distort their decisions
• Snap judgement condition: 0.5s given for participants to answer
o Falsely claimed to see a gun more often when the face was black than when white
o Readiness to see a weapon became an actual false claim of seeing a weapon
• Responses made by African American participants in one study were indistinguishable
from those of European American participants
o Both biased toward claiming weapons in black hands more than white
• No proof that bias is unintentional
• Another study showed that being aware of bias and actively trying to avoid using them
affected self reported intentions but did not improve performance
• Weapon bias is largely independent of intent
What Drives Weapon Bias?
• Stereotypic association links African Americans to violence and weapons
o Serve as an impulse that automatically drives responses whenever a person is
unable to control a response
• Degree of intentional control participants have over how they respond
Behavioral evidence
• Individuals with more negative self-reported attitudes toward blacks showed greater race
bias in their weapon claims
• Weapon bias correlated with individual differences in perceptions of cultural stereotypes
about African Americans
• Implicit-attitude measures avoids issues of introspection and social-desirability bias that
affect explicit or self-report measures
• Those with more negative implicit attitudes toward Blacks showed greater weapon bias
• Snap judgments allowed stereotypes to spill out into overt behavioral errors
• Self regulation depletion (e.g. Stroop task)
o When people are required to self regulate in one way they are less likely to control
themselves in other ways
o Depleted group showed greater weapon bias as a result of reduced control of
responses
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