Previous research examining decisions to shoot using computer simulations
has found that people tend to be biased toward shooting Black suspects
(i.e., participants tend to be quick to shoot Black suspects and to
mistakenly shoot unarmed Black suspects). Additionally, research has found
that White people tend to perceive poor Whites as a threat and respond
negatively toward poor White people. The present work examines influences
of both race and socioeconomic status on decisions to shoot during a
computer simulation task. The results indicate that socioeconomic status
level of the suspect influenced participants' responses to the shooter
task, while race of the suspect had little impact. Specifically,
participants' were faster to shoot armed low socioeconomic status
individuals as compared to armed high socioeconomic status individuals.
These findings suggest that stereotypic associations between low
socioeconomic status people and criminality may influence decisions to
shoot.