Abstract
Police officers exist at the center of much perceptual scrutiny. The present research contributes to the police perception literature by empirically evaluating the effects of facial expressions on perceptions of police officers. Using an experimental methodology, participants were exposed to images of police officers exhibiting either a neutral facial expression or a smile, and then asked to rate them on several important outcomes, including aggressiveness, approachability, friendliness, respectfulness, accountability (Study I; N = 92), and competency (Study II; N = 98). The analyses reveal that smiling unilaterally enhances perceptions of police officers: when exhibiting a smile, officers are perceived as less aggressive and more approachable, friendly, respectful, accountable, and competent. These results are strong and consistent across two samples of diverse participants from a public university and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed with respect to both perceptions of police and philosophies of police more broadly.
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