โA Black man holding a wallet is more likely to be shot by the police than a White man holding a gun.โ
In 2002, a study by Joshua Correll and colleagues, called The Police Officer’s Dilemma, revealed a phenomenon also known as shooter-bias
The study found that people hesitated longer to shoot an armed white target (and they were more likely to accidentally not shoot). Participants were quicker and more accurate with black armed targets but there were more “false alarms” (shooting them when they were unarmed). These effects were present even though participants did not hold any explicit discriminatory views and wanted to treat all targets fairly
(via terrordaktyl)
The full citation is Correll, Park, Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2002. If anyone who doesn’t have university access to the journal wants a pdf of the article, let me know.