Here we investigated the role of physiological stress on participants' lethal force decisions with Black suspects using a novel virtual reality (VR) paradigm. We examined the conditional and mediational roles of implicit racism and visual attention to Black suspects. For this study, we filmed a series of high-risk suspect-police interactions with a 360° video camera which, when viewed through the VR headset, embeds the participants in these scenarios from the perspective of a police officer. Embedded eye tracking in the VR enabled assessment of both physiological stress (through pupil dilation) and attention (through gaze location). Analysis of these behavioral data with criminal justice majors (N = 39) revealed a facilitative function of physiological stress for improving accuracy in lethal force decisions, specifically among those with low levels of implicit racism. Findings also indicated that dysregulated attention—characterized by either disorganized or fixated attentional patterns—compromised lethal force decision making. Results are discussed in relation to future applications of VR to inform our understanding of cognitive and affective precursors of poor decision making. Implications include the promise of cognitive-behavioral interventions for mitigating dysregulated attention patterns, ultimately towards the end of reducing unwarranted uses of lethal force against Black men and women.
AkinolaM.MendesW. B. (2012). Stress-induced cortisol facilitates threat-related decision making among police officers. Behavioral Neuroscience, 126(1), 167–174. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026657
2.
AminihajibashiS.HagenT.FoldalM. D.LaengB.EspesethT. (2019). Individual differences in resting-state pupil size: Evidence for association between working memory capacity and pupil size variability. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 140, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2019.03.007
3.
AnE.NoltyA. A. T.AmanoS. S.RizzoA. A.BuckwalterJ. G.RensbergerJ. (2020). Heart rate variability as an index of resilience. Military Medicine, 185(3/4), 364–369. https://doi.org/10.1093/milmed/usz325
4.
AndrienkoN.AndrienkoG. (2007). Designing visual analytics methods for massive collections of movement data. Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization, 42(2), 117–138. https://doi.org/10.3138/carto.42.2.117
5.
BailensonJ. N.BlascovichJ.GuadagnoR. E. (2008). Self-representations in immersive virtual environments. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38(11), 2673–2690. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2008.00409.x
6.
BanksA. J.HicksH. M. (2016). Fear and implicit racism: Whites’ support for voter ID laws. Political Psychology, 37(5), 641–658. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12292
7.
BartonJ.VrijiA.BullR. (2000). High speed driving: Police use of lethal force during simulated incidents. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 5(1), 107–121. https://doi.org/10.1348/135532500168010
8.
BlascovichJ.LoomisJ.BeallA. C.SwinthK. R.HoytC. L.BailensonJ. N. (2002). Immersive virtual environment technology as a methodological tool for social psychology. Psychological Inquiry, 13(2), 103–124. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1302_01
9.
BrownG. R. (2016). The blue line on thin ice: Police use of force modifications in the era of cameraphones and YouTube. British Journal of Criminology, 56(2), 293–312. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azv052
10.
ChengY-C.SuM-I.LiuC-W.HuangY-C.HuangW-L. (2022). Heart rate variability in patients with anxiety disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychiatry & Clinical Neuroscience, 76(7), 292–302. https://doi.org/10.1111/pcn.13356
11.
CorbettM. (2015). From law to folklore: Work stress and the yerkes-dodson law. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 30(6), 741–752. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-03-2013-0085
12.
CorrellJ.ParkB.JuddC. M.WittenbrinkB. (2002). The police officer’s dilemma: Using ethnicity to disambiguate potentially threatening individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(6), 1314–1329. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.6.1314
13.
CorrellJ.ParkB.JuddC. M.WittenbrinkB. (2007a). The influence of stereotypes on decisions to shoot. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37(6), 1102–1117. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.450
14.
CorrellJ.ParkB.JuddC. M.WittenbrinkB.SadlerM. S.KeeseeT. (2007b). Across the thin blue line: Police officers and racial bias in the decision to shoot. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1006–1023. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1006
15.
CorrellJ.UrlandG. R.ItoT. A. (2006). Event-related potentials and the decision to shoot: The role of threat perception and cognitive control. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42(1), 120–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2005.02.006
16.
CottrellC. A.NeubergS. L. (2005). Different emotional reactions to different groups: A sociofunctional threat-based approach to “prejudice.”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(5), 770–789. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.5.770
17.
CoxW. T. L.DevineP. G.PlantE. A.SchwartzL. L. (2014). Toward a comprehensive understanding of officers’ shooting decisions: No simple answers to this complex problem. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 36 (4), 356–364. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2014.923312
18.
EberhardtJ. L.DaviesP. G.Purdie-VaughnsV. J.JohnsonS. L. (2006). Looking deathworthy: Perceived stereotypicality of black defendants predicts capital-sentencing outcomes. Psychological Science, 17(5), 383–386. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01716.x
19.
EberhardtJ. L.GoffP. A.PurdieV. J.DaviesP. G. (2004). Seeing black: Race, crime, and visual processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(6), 876–893. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.87.6.876
20.
EngelR. S.McManusH. D.IsazaG. T. (2020). Moving beyond ‘best practice’: Experiences in police reform and a call for evidence to reduce officer-involved shootings. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 687(1), 146–165. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716219889328
21.
EysenkM. W.DerakshanN.SantosR.CalvoM. G. (2007). Anxiety and cognitive performance: Attention control theory. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 7(2), 336–333. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.7.2.336
22.
FrieseM.HofmannW.WänkeM. (2008). When impulses take over: Moderated predictive validity of explicit and implicit attitude measures in predicting food choice and consumption behaviour. The British Psychological Society, 47(3), 397–419. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466607X241540
23.
Fuentes-GarcíaJ. P.VillafainaS.Collado-MateoD.de la VegaR.OlivaresP. R.Clemente-SuárezV. (2019). Differences between high vs. low performance chess players in heart rate variability during chess problems. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00409
24.
GoffP. A.JacksonM. C.Di LeoneB. A. L.CulottaC. M.DiTomassoN. A. (2014). The essence of innocence: Consequences of dehumanizing black children. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 106(4), 526–545. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035663
25.
GreenwaldA. G.McGheeD. E.SchwartzJ. K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1464–1480. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.6.1464
26.
GreenwaldA. G.NosekB. A.BanajiM. R. (2003). Understanding and using the implicit association test: I. An improved scoring algorithm. Attitudes and Social Cognition, 85(2), 197–216. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.2.197.
27.
Grosse-HoltforthM.CastonguayL. G.BoswellJ. F.WilsonL. A.KakourosA. A.BorkovecT. D. (2007). Insight in cognitive-behavioral therapy. In CastonguayL. GHillC. (Eds.), Insight in psychotherapy (pp. 57–80). American Psychological Association.
28.
HahnA.GawronskiB. (2018). Facing one’s implicit biases: From awareness to acknowledgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 116(5), 769–794. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000155
29.
HayesA. F.PreacherK. J. (2010). Quantifying and testing indirect effects in simple mediation models when the constituent paths are nonlinear. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 45(4), 627–660. https://doi.org/10.1080/00273171.2010.498290
30.
HayesA. F.PreacherK. J. (2014). Statistical mediation analysis with a multicategorical independent variable. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 67(3), 451–470. https://doi.org/10.1111/bmsp.12028
31.
HershmanR.HenikA.CohenN. (2018). A novel blink detection method based on pupillometry noise. Behavior Research Methods, 50, 107–114. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-017-1008-1
32.
HesselsR. S.NiehorsterD. C.NyströmM.AnderssonR.HoogeI. T. C. (2018). Is the eye-movement field confused about fixations and saccades? A survey among 124 researchers. Royal Society of Open Science, 5. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180502
33.
HeuslerB.SutterC. (2022). Shoot or don’t shoot? Tactical gaze control and visual attention training improves police cadets’ decision-making performance in live-fire scenarios. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.798766
34.
HofmannW.FrieseM. (2008). Impulses got the better of me: Alcohol moderates the influence of implicit attitudes toward food cues on eating behavior. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117(2), 420–427. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.117.2.420
JamesL.JamesS. M.VilaB. (2016). The reverse racism effect: Are cops more hesitant to shoot black than white suspects?Criminology & Public Policy, 15(2), 457–479. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12187
37.
JamesL.VilaB.DarathaK. (2013). Results from experimental trials testing participant responses to white, hispanic and black suspects in high-fidelity deadly force judgment and decision-making simulations. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 9(2), 189–212. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-012-9163-y
38.
KahnK. B.MartinK. D. (2016). Policing and race: Disparate treatment, perceptions, and policy responses. Social Issues and Policy Review, 10(1), 82–121. https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12019
39.
KrejtzK.DuchowskiA. T.NieedzielskaA.BieleC.KrejtzI. (2018). Eye tracking cognitive load using pupil diameter and microsaccades with fixed gaze. Public Library of Science, 13(9) 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203629
40.
LaiC. K.MariniM.LehrS. A.CerrutiC.ShinJ. L.Joy-GabaJ. A.HoA. K.TeachmanB. A.WojcikS. P.KolevaS. P.FrazierR. S.HeiphetzL.ChenE.TurnerR. N.HaidtJ.KesebirS.HawkinsC. B.SchaeferH. S.RubichiS.NosekB. A. (2014). Reducing implicit racial preferences: I. A comparative investigation of 17 interventions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143 (4), 1765–1785. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036260
41.
LandmanA.NieuwenhuysA.OudejansR. R. D. (2016). Decision-related action orientation predicts police officers’ shooting performance under pressure. Anxiety, Stress & Coping: An International Journal, 29(5), 570–579. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2015.1070834.
42.
LuiniL. P.MarucciF. S. (2015). Prediction–confirmation hypothesis and affective deflection model to account for split-second decisions and decision-making under pressure of proficient decision-makers. Cognition, Technology & Work, 17(3), 329–344. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-015-0328-0
43.
MaD. S.CorrellJ. (2011). Target prototypicality moderates racial bias in the decision to shoot. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(2), 391–396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2010.11.002
44.
McCallC.BlascovichJ.YoungA.PerskyS. (2009). Proxemic behaviors as predictors of aggression towards black (but not white) males in an immersive social environment, Social Influence, 4 (2), 138–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/15534510802517418
45.
McCallH. C.BeahmJ. D.FournierA. K.BurnettJ. L.CarletonM.HadjistavropoulosH. D. (2020). Stakeholder perspectives on internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy for public safety personnel: A qualitative analysis. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science; 53(3), 232–242. https://doi.org/10.1037/cbs0000242
46.
MekawiY.BresinK.HunterC. D. (2015). White fear, dehumanization, and low empathy: Lethal combinations for shooting biases. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 22(3), 322–332. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000067
47.
MenshikovaG. Y.KovalevA. I.KlimovaO. A.BarabanschikovaV. V. (2017). The application of virtual reality technology to testing resistance to motion sickness. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 10(3), 151–164. https://doi.org/10.11621/pir.2017.0310
48.
NieuwenhuysA.OudejansR. R. D. (2010). Effects of anxiety on handgun shooting behavior of police officers: A pilot study. Anxiety, Stress & Coping: An International Journal, 23(2), 225–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615800902977494
49.
NieuwenhuysA.OudejansR. R. D. (2011). Training with anxiety: Short- and long-term effects on police officers’ shooting behavior under pressure. Cognitive Processing, 12(3), 277–288. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-011-0396-x
50.
NieuwenhuysA.SavelsberghG. J. P.OudejansR. R. D. (2012). Shoot or don’t shoot? Why police officers are more inclined to shoot when they are anxious. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 12(4), 827–833. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025699
51.
PapazoglouK.AndersenJ.P. (2014). A guide to utilizing police training as a tool to promote resilience and improve health outcomes among police officers. Traumatology: An International Journal, 20(2), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0099394
52.
PlantE. A.DevineP. G. (1998). Internal and external motivation to respond without prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(3), 811–832. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.3.811
53.
PlantE. A.PerucheB. M. (2005). The consequences of race for police officers’ responses to criminal suspects. Psychological Science, 16(3), 180–183. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.00800.x
54.
PlantE. A.PerucheB. M.ButzD. A. (2005). Eliminating automatic racial bias: Making race non-diagnostic for responses to criminal suspects. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41(2), 141–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2004.07.004
55.
PleskacT. J.CesarioJ.JohnsonD. J. (2018). How race affects evidence accumulation during the decision to shoot. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25(4), 1301–1330. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1369-6
56.
Razpurker-ApfeldI. R.Shamoa-NirL. (2020). Is an outgroup welcome with open arms? Approach and avoidance motor activations and outgroup prejudice. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 27(2), 417 - 429. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000334
57.
RegeherC.LeBlancV.JelleyR. B.BarathI. (2008). Acute stress and performance in police recruits. Stress & Health, 24(4), 295–303. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.1182
58.
SadlerM. S.CorrellJ.ParkB.JuddC. M. (2012). The world is not black and white: Racial bias in the decision to shoot in a multiethnic context. Journal of Social Issues, 68(2), 286–313. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2012.01749.x
59.
SegarraP.PiyR.BranchadellV.Ribes-GuardiolaP., & MoltóJ. (2022). Psychopathy and heart rate variability: A new physiological marker for the adaptive features of boldness. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment[online first]. https://doi.org/10.1037/per0000573
60.
ShochetI. M.Shakespear-FinchJ.CraigC.RoosC.WurflA.HogeR.YoungR. M.BroughP. (2011). The development and implementation of the promoting resilient officers (PRO) program. Traumatology, 17(4), 43–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534765611429080
61.
SimJ. J.CorrellJ.SadlerM. S. (2013). Understanding police and expert performance: When training attenuates (vs. Exacerbates) stereotypic bias in the decision to shoot. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(3), 291–304. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167212473157
62.
SimonovicB.StuppleE. J. N.GaleM.SheffieldD. (2018). Performance under stress: An eye-tracking investigation of the iowa gambling task (IGT). Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00217
63.
Tawa, J., Lang, Y., & St. John, A. (Unpublished manuscript). Measuring visual attention with 360 degree video stimuli in virtually immersive environments: A case study of police officers’ decisions to shoot.
64.
TawaJ.NegrónR.PfefferJ. (2020). The measurement of interpersonal interactions with continuous spatiotemporal data: Application to a study of the effects of resource competition on racial group interactions. Behavioral Research Methods, 52(2), 881–900. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-019-01287-1
TaylorP. L. (2021). “Engineering resilience” into split-second shoot/no shoot decisions: The effect of muzzle-position. Police Quarterly, 24(2), 185–204. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611120960688
67.
TobonJ. I.OuimetA. J.DozoisD. J. A. (2011). Attention bias in anxiety disorders following cognitive behavioral treatment. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An International Quarterly, 25(2), 114–129. https://doi.org/10.1891/0889-8391.25.2.114
68.
VickersJ. N.LewinskiW. (2012). Performing under pressure: Gaze control, decision making and shooting performance of elite and rookie police officers. Human Movement Science, 31(1), 101–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2011.04.004
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
