Greenwald and his colleagues (2003) asked both Black and White participants to press a "shoot" button when the target appeared to be holding a gun rather than a harmless object such as a flashlight. The results of this study showed that the participants more often misperceived the object and mistakenly shot harmless targets who were Black. This shows that:

Social Studies · High School · Mon Jan 18 2021

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  • This study by Greenwald and colleagues (2003) highlights a concerning bias known as racial bias in shooting decisions.
  • The findings indicate that participants were more likely to misperceive harmless objects as weapons when held by Black individuals, leading to a higher rate of mistakenly shooting unarmed Black targets compared to White targets. This points to the presence of implicit racial biases that can influence split-second decisions and actions, leading to unjust outcomes.

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