No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The missing consequences: A fourth flaw of experiments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2022
Abstract
Decisions are affected by the potential consequences as much as any factor during the decision-making process. This prospective influence represents another flaw overlooked by most experiments that raises questions about the use of certain laboratory paradigms. Lethal force encounters are a prime example of this problem, where negative consequences of slow decisions and wrong decisions should be considered alongside behavior.
- Type
- Open Peer Commentary
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press
References
Biggs, A. T., Cain, M. S., & Mitroff, S. R. (2015). Cognitive training can reduce civilian casualties in a simulated shooting environment. Psychological Science, 26(8), 1164–1176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biggs, A., & Doubrava, M. (2019). Superficial ballistic trauma and subjective pain experienced during force-on-force training and the observed recovery pattern. Military Medicine, 184(11–12), e611–e615.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Biggs, A., Pettijohn, K., & Gardony, A. (2021). When the response does not match the threat: The relationship between threat assessment and behavioural response in ambiguous lethal force decision-making. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74(5), 812–825.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blacker, K. J., Pettijohn, K. A., Roush, G., & Biggs, A. T. (2021). Measuring lethal force performance in the lab: The effects of simulator realism and participant experience. Human Factors, 63(7), 1141–1155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cesario, J., & Carrillo, A. (in press). Racial bias in police officer deadly force decisions: What has social cognition learned? In Carlston, D. E., Johnson, K. & Hugenberg, K. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of social cognition (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Correll, J., Wittenbrink, B., Park, B., Judd, C. M., & Goyle, A. (2011). Dangerous enough: Moderating racial bias with contextual threat cues. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 184–189.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cox, W. T. L., & Devine, P. G. (2016). Experimental research on shooter bias: Ready (or relevant) for application in the courtroom? Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition 5, 236–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, L., Klinger, D., & Vila, B. (2014). Racial and ethnic bias in decisions to shoot seen through a stronger lens: Experimental results from high-fidelity laboratory simulations. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 10, 323–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, L., Vila, B., & Daratha, K. (2013). Results from experimental trials testing participant responses to White, Hispanic and Black suspects in high-fidelity deadly force judgment and decision-making simulations. Journal of Experimental Criminology 9, 189–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nieuwenhuys, A., & Oudejans, R. R. (2010). Effects of anxiety on handgun shooting behavior of police officers: A pilot study. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 23(2), 225–233.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nieuwenhuys, A., & Oudejans, R. R. (2011). Training with anxiety: Short- and long-term effects on police officers’ shooting behavior under pressure. Cognitive Processing, 12(3), 277–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oudejans, R. R. D. (2008). Reality-based practice under pressure improves handgun shooting performance of police officers. Ergonomics, 51(3), 261–273.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Patton, D., & Gamble, K. (2016). Physiological measures of arousal during soldier-relevant tasks performed in a simulated environment. In Schmorrow, D. D. & Fidopiastis, C. M. (Eds.), Foundations of augmented cognition: Neuroergonomics and operational neuroscience: 10th international conference, AC 2016, Held as Part of HCI International 2016, Toronto, ON, Canada, July 17–22, 2016, Proceedings, Part I (pp. 372–382). Springer International Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sim, J. J., Correll, J., & Sadler, M. S. (2013). Understanding police and expert performance: When training attenuates (vs. exacerbates) stereotypic bias in the decision to shoot. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39, 291–304. doi: 10.1177/0146167212473157CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taverniers, J., & De Boeck, P. (2014). Force-on-force handgun practice: An intra-individual exploration of stress effects, biomarker regulation, and behavioral changes. Human Factors, 56(2), 403–413.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taverniers, J., Smeets, T., Van Ruysseveldt, J., Syroit, J., & von Grumbkow, J. (2011). The risk of being shot at: Stress, cortisol secretion, and their impact on memory and perceived learning during reality-based practice for armed officers. International Journal of Stress Management, 18(2), 113–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, P. L. (2020). Dispatch priming and the police decision to use deadly force. Police Quarterly, 1098611119896653.Google Scholar
Wessel, J. R. (2018). Prepotent motor activity and inhibitory control demands in different variants of the go/no-go paradigm. Psychophysiology, 55(3), e12871.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Target article
What can experimental studies of bias tell us about real-world group disparities?
Related commentaries (29)
A skeptical reflection: Contextualizing police shooting decisions with skin-tone
Accuracy in social judgment does not exclude the potential for bias
Beyond stereotypes: Prejudice as an important missing force explaining group disparities
Centering the relationship between structural racism and individual bias
Cesario's framework for understanding group disparities is radically incomplete
Controlled lab experiments are one of many useful scientific methods to investigate bias
Culturally fluent real-world disparities can blind us to bias: Experiments using a cultural lens can help
Developmental research assessing bias would benefit from naturalistic observation data
Experimental studies of bias: Imperfect but neither useless nor unique
Experiments make a good breakfast, but a poor supper
External validity of social psychological experiments is a concern, but these models are useful
Fighting over who dictates the nature of prejudice
How should we understand “bias” as a thick concept in recruitment discrimination studies?
Missing context from experimental studies amplifies, rather than negates, racial bias in the real world
Missing perspective: Marginalized groups in the social psychological study of social disparities
Practical consequences of flawed social psychological research on bias
Social bias insights concern judgments rather than real-world decisions
Surely not all experimental studies of bias need abandoning?
Taking social psychology out of context
The call for ecological validity is right but missing perceptual idiosyncrasies is wrong
The importance of ecological validity, ultimate causation, and natural categories
The internal validity obsession
The logic of challenging research into bias and social disparity
The missing consequences: A fourth flaw of experiments
The only thing that can stop bad causal inference is good causal inference
The unbearable limitations of solo science: Team science as a path for more rigorous and relevant research
Two thousand years after Archimedes, psychologist finds three topics that will simply not yield to the experimental method
Understanding causal mechanisms in the study of group bias
What can the implicit social cognition literature teach us about implicit social cognition?
Author response
Reply to the commentaries: A radical revision of experimental social psychology is still needed