The shooting death of Michael Brown on August 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri is, unfortunately, not especially surprising. In direct response to shooting deaths of unarmed minorities going back to Amadou Diallo, social psychologists have extensively studied the role that race, racial stereotypes, and prejudice play in violence and in decisions to shoot. Using shoot/do not shoot simulations, researchers have experimentally varied the race of suspects (e.g., black vs. white) and the types of objects (cell phone vs. gun) they are holding to examine individuals’ decisions to shoot (Correll, Park, Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2002). The results show that racial stereotypes bias individuals’ decisions to shoot, meaning that unarmed minorities are more likely to be shot than unarmed whites, a phenomenon called “shooter bias.” Community members as well as police officers show this bias to some extent. My own research has demonstrated that individuals are more likely to mistakenly shoot darker-skinned black suspects compared to lighter-skinned black suspects (Kahn & Davies, 2011). Shooter bias is so prevalent because it is driven by implicit stereotypes, which are stereotypes that operate beneath individuals’ conscious awareness. One need not be explicitly prejudiced to fall victim to these shooting mistakes. My research has also shown that this bias is not only at the shooting-decision level, but can be seen across the range of use-of-force decisions, with minorities receiving differentially more force than whites. Along with research to understand the shooter bias phenomenon, interventions have also had some success at reducing these racially biased decisions (Plant & Peruche, 2005). Through continued research and informed interventions, we can hope to reduce the likelihood of these shooting incidents and the tragic aftermaths that follow.  

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