Explicit and implicit racial bias and empathy: a study in Portuguese law enforcement officials

• Autor(a) principal: Marques, Alícia Rosa
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/36304
• topic: Implicit racial bias; Explicit racial bias; Implicit association test; Empathy; Law enforcement officials

In recent decades, the study of implicit racial bias has gained relevance due to its negative impact on contemporary societies. Due to its important role at a social level, it will be extremely important to study this type of bias in populations that guarantee security and equality. Thus, the main objective of this study was to measure the explicit and implicit racial bias in law enforcement officials in Portugal. The second objective was to explore the relationship between implicit racial bias and different dimensions of empathy, identified as contributing to its increase or decrease. A sample of 205 law enforcement officials completed the: a) Borgardus Social Distancing Scale, b) Implicit Association Test and c) Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Our results revealed the absence of explicit bias and the presence of implicit bias. Additionally, subjects with higher levels of Perspective Taking showed a significant decrease in implicit racial bias. Although not significant, we found a tendency for subjects with more Personal Distress to show an increase in implicit racial bias. This study confirms the previous literature on the discrepancy between the implicit and explicit measures, as well as the interaction between empathy and implicit racial bias.