Before and after George Floyd and Breonna Taylor: citizen perceptions of a ‘Reasonable Officer’

Abstract

ABSTRACT The extent to which the American ‘Black criminal’ stereotype and nonverbal cues of aggression influences community perceptions of citizen-officer interactions was examined. In three experiments, using a between-subjects, vignette-methodology depicting a domestic violence situation, participants (N = 838) read about a Black or White man displaying aggressive or nonaggressive nonverbal cues with a police officer. Participants rated aggression, subject and officer actions, and familiarity with cases involving Black Americans. Experiment 3 was conducted in July 2020 after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor amid protests against police brutality. Aggressive displays by the vignette subject increased expectations of interpersonal violence between the subject and officer. The White man was perceived as more likely to aggress than the Black man (Exp 2 & 3). Case familiarity did not moderate perceptions (Exp 1 & 2); however, familiarity with George Floyd and Breonna Taylor (Exp 3) modified perceptions of the subject-officer interaction. Increased familiarity led to perceptions that the Black man was less of a threat than the White counterpart. Perceptions of a ‘reasonable officer’ are more complex and culturally driven than can be accounted for via stereotype activation. Implications for public perceptions of law enforcement and the justice system are considered.