Abstract
This research investigated civilian implicit attitudes toward police. Previous research has solely used explicit measures (or examined police officers’ implicit reactions to civilians). Two studies assessed the implicit activation of safety and fear when participants were primed with police using a Word Fragment Completion Task (e.g., Johnson and Lord 2010). In a college sample, police primes led to increased safety and decreased fear construct activation, whereas in an online sample, both safety and fear became more accessible. Overall, results indicated that a wide range of individual differences in implicit attitudes toward police exist, that implicit reactions to police officers might be distinct from explicit global evaluations, and that, despite the existence of negative police-civilian interactions, the appearance of police officers might still tend to activate safety-related thoughts. The findings prompt the need to further assess the underlying cognitive components of civilian attitudes toward police officers.
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Notes
Although some fragments were completed as the target word more often than other words, our between-subject design nonetheless allowed for clear comparison of construct activation when primed with police vs. civilians. In other words, each word fragment had a base rate for which the fragment was completed as the target word (observed in the civilian/control condition), and we were able to observe increases or decreases in construct activation when primed with police relative to that base rate.
In our pretesting, we included multiple fragment variations (e.g., “S _ _ E T Y” and “S _ _ _ T Y”). The finalized fragments were completed as the target word between 25 and 75% of the time. Koopman et al. (2013) note that increased blank spaces in word fragments require increased cognitive processing. As our study was already cognitively effortful, another consideration when choosing fragments was to prioritize those that would pose the least participant burden.
The simple effects of construct type were assessed; however, such differences are difficult to interpret with confidence as they could in part be due to differences in how strongly the two sets of word fragments (fear and safety) suggested construct-relevant words. There was a significant simple effect of construct type in the civilian condition, F(1, 205) = 8.90, p = .003, such that fear word fragments were completed more than safety word fragments when participants were primed with civilians. There was a non-significant simple effect of construct type in the police condition, F(1, 205) = 1.18, p = .280, such that fear word and safety word fragment completion rates did not significantly differ when participants were primed with police.
The objective socioeconomic status measure and the subjective socioeconomic status measure were correlated, r = .63, p < .001. We report analyses using the objective socioeconomic status measure.
As opposed to study 1, which was conducted in-lab, Study 2 was conducted online. Thus, exclusion criteria were used to ensure engagement with the study on the part of participants included in the analyses. Although previous research has demonstrated the ability of online recruitment methods to produce valid data, especially on self-report measures (e.g., Shawver et al. 2016), this research required intensive attention to the primary task of interest. In comparing in-lab and online experimental methodologies, Dandurand et al. (2008) found online participants to be less accurate in completing the tasks and to have higher dropout rates than in-lab participants, although patterns of results were nonetheless replicated. Additionally, Ramsey et al. (2016) indicated that online participants were more likely to read instructions than in-lab participants, but cautioned researchers to be wary of administering tasks that require non-intuitive instructions. Thus, to be conservative, participants two standard deviations above the mean on both criteria (i.e., failed attempts and duration) were excluded from analyses. Nonetheless, all analyses excluding participants three standard deviations above the mean on both criteria led to similar findings.
Similar to the first study (see footnote 3), the simple effects of construct type were assessed, and revealed that fear word fragments were completed more than safety word fragments in both the police condition, F(1, 408) = 5.01, p = .026, and civilian condition, F(1, 408) = 4.76, p = .030.
As in study 1. the objective socioeconomic status measure and the subjective socioeconomic status measure were correlated, r = .50, p < .001. We report analyses using the objective socioeconomic status measure.
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Appendix 1: Word Fragment Completion Task (modified Johnson and Lord 2010; Vargas et al. 2007)
Appendix 1: Word Fragment Completion Task (modified Johnson and Lord 2010; Vargas et al. 2007)
Instructions:
Next you will complete a Word Fragment Completion Task. Before each word fragment, you will see a picture. The picture will signal that the word fragment is about to be presented. When the word fragment is presented, your task is to complete the word fragment as quickly as possible. For example, if the word fragment “S P O _ _” were presented, you might complete the word as “S P O O N.” Type the first word that fits the fragment that comes to mind, and do so as quickly as possible.
Example Prime Items:
Word Fragments:
Safety:
Comfort (C _ _ _ O R T) | Peace (P E _ _ E) | Protection (P R _ _ E _ T I O N) | Relief (R E _ I E _) |
|---|---|---|---|
Safety (S _ _ E T Y) | Secure (S E _ U _ _) | Shelter (S H _ _ T E R) | |
Fear: | |||
Panic (P A N _ _) | Concern (C O N _ _ _ N) | Scared (S _ _ R E D) | Terror (T E _ _ _ R) |
Worry (W O R _ Y) | Horror (H O R _ _ _) | Dread (D R _ _ D) | |
Filler: | |||
T _ P _ | A _ T _ R | S _ M P _ _ | B _ _ K |
P _ _ N E | T _ N E | B R _ _ Z E | E X _ E _ _ |
C _ M P _ _ T | S H _ L _ | T _ _ T E | S _ D _ |
D _ _ R | F R _ _ T |
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Sargent, R.H., Newman, L.S. An Investigation of Civilian Implicit Attitudes Toward Police Officers. J Police Crim Psych 35, 360–376 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-019-09330-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-019-09330-9