1. Introduction Methods Results
Conclusion
 Previous research has examined the factors
that influence perceptions toward the use of
force by police officers (Zabel, et al. 2016).
 Our purpose for this study was to uncover
participants’ implicit attitudes towards
police officers and test whether any
correlations exist through the use of
specific measures.
 Variables that predict support toward
officer use of lethal force include social
dominance orientation, blind patriotism,
and right-wing authoritarianism (Perkins &
Bourgeois, 2006).
 Social dominance orientation (SDO)
describes one’s degree of preference for
inequality among social groups (Pratto, et
al. 1994).
 Right-wing authoritarianism is a measure
that includes: authoritarian submission
(uncritical subjection to authority),
authoritarian aggression (feeling of
aggression towards norm violators) and
conventionalism (strict adherence to
conventional norms and values) (Rattazzi
2007).
Hypothesis
Implicit Attitudes Towards Police, Politics, and the Media
Paige Bernard, Erin Law, and Kevin Zabel
PARTICIPANTS:
For this study we utilized 74 undergraduates at a small, private university
Male: 28; Female: 45 (one participant did not indicate); 88% White
PROCEDURE:
Self constructed 12-item measure on which news outlet participants prefer; 1
(not often) to 7 (most often)
How often do you obtain news from CNN?
Social Dominance Orientation: 15 item questionnaire; scaled 1 (extremely
negative) to 7 (extremely positive)
Some people are just inferior to others.
Right Wing Authoritarianism: 16 item questionnaire; scaled 1 (very strongly
disagree) to 9 (very strongly agree)
“Old-fashion ways” and “old-fashion values” still show the best ways to live.
Political Affiliation: 3 item questionnaire; scaled 1 (very liberal) to 7 (very
conservative)
Foreign policy issues Economic issues Social issues
Participants completed a single-category personalized implicit attitude test (P-
IAT; Olson & Fazio, 2004) in which they categorized images and words on the
computer. Participants completed trials in which either a picture of a police
officer, a positively-valenced word (e.g., likeable), or a negatively-
valenced word (e.g., disgusting) were presented.
In version 1 of the task, participants categorized words and images as
belonging to one of two categories: “Police Officer or I Like” or “I Dislike.”
In version 2 of the task, participants categorized words and images differently.
Specifically, participants categorized stimuli as belonging to one of two
categories: “I like” or “Police Officer or I dislike.” In each version, participants
pressed designated keys on their keyboards to make their judgments. Across all
trials, participants’ response latencies to categorize the words and whether or
not each categorization was correct was recorded.
We subtracted participants’ average response times to version 2 of the task
from those of version 1 of the task to calculate implicit prejudice, controlling
for the variability in response times for each participant (Greenwald, Nosek,
& Banaji, 2003). Higher scores indicated more negative implicit attitudes
toward substance abusers.
Surprisingly people who utilize CNN most for a news source tend to have more
negative implicit attitude towards police officers. The hypothesis regarding
Conservatives eliciting more positive attitudes towards the police could not be
supported.
Limitations to this study include:
Small sample size Lack of minority presence
Self-report data Correlational in nature
There are few studies in the literature that focus on implicit attitudes toward the
police. Future research begs the question—how much influence does the media
have over an individual’s implicit attitudes towards specific politics and
authority figures? A larger and more varied sample size will produce more
reliable results for what influences individuals.
AP PA RWA SDO NS M SD α
AP - .05 .24 -
PA .00 - 3.72 1.40 .82
RWA -.13 .53* - 4.25 .87 .71
SDO -.06 .32* .31 - 2.23 .93 .88
NS -.26* -.01 -.05 -.14 - 2.68 1.57 -
AP- Automatic Prejudice PA- Political Affiliation RWA- Right Wing Authoritarian NS- News
Source
SDO- Social Dominance Orientation *- Numeric value shows statistical significance (p<.05)