Cognitive and Affective Precursors to Decisions to use Lethal Force Against Black Suspects: A Virtual Reality Application

• Published date: 01 October 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/21533687221127448
• Author: John Tawa,Yuanguo Lang,Maryam M. Jernigan
• Date: 01 October 2024
• Subject Matter: Articles

Cognitive and Affective

Precursors to Decisions

to use Lethal Force Against

Black Suspects: A Virtual

Reality Application

John Tawa

1

, Yuanguo Lang

1

,

and Maryam M. Jernigan

2

Abstract

Here we investigated the role of physiological stress on participants’lethal force deci-

sions 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 interac-

tions 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 lev-

els of implicit racism. Findings also indicated that dysregulated attention—character-

ized 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 mak-

ing. Implications include the promise of cognitive-behavioral interventions for mitigat-

ing dysregulated attention patterns, ultimately towards the end of reducing

unwarranted uses of lethal force against Black men and women.

1

Department of Psychology and Education, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts, USA

2

Department of Psychology, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia, USA

Corresponding Author:

John Tawa, Department of Psychology and Education, Mount Holyoke College, 100 College Ave., South

Hadley, MA, 01075, USA.

Email: jtawa@mtholyoke.edu

Article

Race and Justice

2024, Vol. 14(4) 490-517

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/21533687221127448

journals.sagepub.com/home/raj

Keywords

Black/African American, lethal force, decision-making, visual attention, cognitive-

behavioral therapy, physiological stress

Michael Brown, Stephon Clark, Yvette Smith, Walter Scott, and Andre Hill are just a

few familiar names of unarmed Black men and women who have been killed by

police in just the past few years. In light of the increasing awareness of police vio-

lence (Brown, 2016; Kahn & Martin, 2016), media sources have begun tracking

police shootings; for example, the Washington Post has created a publicly available

database of every lethal police encounter in the U.S. since January of 2015. These

data reveal that Black men and women have comprised 25.8% of deaths at the

hands of the police, despite comprising only approximately 13% of the U.S. popula-

tion (Washington Post, n.d.). A number of experimental research studies have con-

f‌irmed that both police off‌icer and citizen subjects tend to be quicker to shoot and

make more errors in lethal force decisions when faced with Black relative to

White suspects (see review below). While these experimental studies have been valu-

able in demonstrating that racial bias in police decisions to use lethal force does exist,

they do not tell us much about the cognitive and affective processes that precede or

culminate in lethal force decisions. In these studies, participants typically sit in front

of a computer and respond to still images of suspects who appear on the screen

holding a gun or a benign object (e.g., Correll et al., 2002). These methods are not

likely to induce the type of cognitive processes and affective states experienced by

people operating in High-Pressure Environments (HPEs; Landman et al., 2016).

Among the few studies that have attempted to simulate immersive HPEs, stress

does appear to negatively impact decision making processes in the use lethal force

(e.g., Neiuwenhaus et al., 2012). Yet, the body of research specif‌ically examining

the role of race and racism in lethal force decision within HPEs remains sparse

and inconclusive.

Identifying the maladaptive cognitive and affective patterns that arise from inter-

acting in stressful environments and that lead to inaccurate and/or biased decision

making could greatly aid in the development of police training programs aiming

to mitigate improper uses of lethal force, particularly towards members of the

Black community. Indeed, a number of studies have demonstrated that training

can reduce racial biases in shooter decisions. As such, virtual reality (VR) is a prom-

ising tool for simulating HPEs. For this study, we f‌ilmed a series of potentially vola-

tile suspect encounter scenarios with a 360° camera; when viewed through the VR

headset, the participant is embedded in the center of these scenarios, which unfold

unpredictably. For example, suspects may appear from the periphery or even from

behind the participant. Behavioral data collected from subjects using VR while

they interact with these scenarios, such as pupil dilation and eye-tracking, allow

for the examination of the underlying psychological mechanisms that may contribute

Tawa et al. 491