Emotional reactivity and police expertise in use-of-force decision-making

No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Ta, Vivian P.
Lande, Brian
Suss, Joel
Advisors
Issue Date
2021-03-19
Type
Article
Keywords
Emotional reactivity , Police , Expertise , Use-of-force , Decision-making
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Citation
Ta, V. P., Lande, B., & Suss, J. (2021). Emotional reactivity and police expertise in use-of-force decision-making. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, doi:10.1007/s11896-020-09428-5
Abstract

Given the vast amount of evidence showing the substantial influence of emotion on decision-making, we examined emotionality—a person’s emotional reactivity to a stimulus—in police use-of-force decision-making between a sample of expert (n = 42) and novice (n = 36) officers. Officers observed body-worn camera footage and described the course of action they would take, the kinds of information they paid attention to, and their assessment of the situation. Natural language processing techniques were used to detect measures of valence, arousal, and dominance from officer responses. Linear mixed-effects models indicated that responses from experts were more positively valenced, more dominant, and less arousing compared with responses from novices. In other words, the ability to react and assess situations calmly, with a greater sense of control, and less negatively seems to be linked with the production of accurate, effective, and efficient behaviors that mark expert policing. These results shed light on the ways in which expert and novice officers understand and experience stimuli involved in use-of-force decision-making. Practical implications for use-of-force training and future directions are discussed.

Table of Contents
Description
Click on the DOI link to access the article (may not be free).
Publisher
Springer
Journal
Book Title
Series
Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology;
PubMed ID
DOI
ISSN
0882-0783
1936-6469
EISSN