The recent, well-publicized shootings of unarmed black men by police officers have raised many troubling questions. Perhaps the most fundamental: whether these tragedies reflect a larger societal bias that sees men of color as threatening figures, which could in turn prompt even well-trained police officers to adopt a shoot-first-ask-questions-later mindset.
Over the past decade, many studies have attempted to prove or disprove the existence of such prejudice; the results have been mixed and sometimes contradictory. But in a newly published analysis of 42 such studies, University of Illinois psychologistsYara Mekawi and Konrad Bresin conclude that, unfortunately, this racial bias is indeed quite real.
[For more of this story, written by Tom Jacobs, go to http://www.psmag.com/health-an...-the-target-is-black]
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