The Effect of Information on Blame Attributed to Four Entities in a Police Shooting

Author

Pauline Meyer, Arkansas State UniversityFollow

Date of Award

5-31-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Psychological Science, MS

First Advisor

David Saarnio

Committee Members

Jessica Curtis; Wayne Wilkinson

Call Number

LD 251 .A566t 2023 M49

Abstract

Police shootings continue to negatively impact the public perception of police. When it comes to attributing blame in a police shooting, both internal and external factors affect how much blame a person places on the entities involved. One hundred and twenty Arkansas State undergraduate students enrolled in a psychology or criminology course were randomly assigned to one of the three type of information groups: the episodic, thematic-pattern of violence (TPV), or the thematic-police reform (TPR) group, and then read about the Stephon Clark shooting in 2018. Participants attributed blame scores to the four entities involved: Stephon Clark, the police chief, the police officers, and the police institution. The two-way ANOVA revealed that blame scores were highest for the police officers, followed by the police institution, and police chief, and lowest for Stephon Clark. The type of information did not have an effect on the attribution of blame for the entities.

Rights Management

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Meyer, Pauline, "The Effect of Information on Blame Attributed to Four Entities in a Police Shooting" (2023). Student Theses and Dissertations. 180.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/180