Experimental sleep loss, racial bias, and the decision criterion to shoot in the Police Officer’s Dilemma task

Abstract Violent behavior, police brutality, and racial discrimination are currently at the forefront of society’s attention, and they should be. We investigated whether mild sleep loss—as typical for many adults throughout the work week—could aggravate the socio-emotional-cognitive processes contri...

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Autores principales:	Michael K. Scullin, Michelle R. Hebl, Abby Corrington, Stacy Nguyen
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2020
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/327850dd2fc644a5a4f0934a14c3a37d
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:327850dd2fc644a5a4f0934a14c3a37d2021-12-02T16:08:47ZExperimental sleep loss, racial bias, and the decision criterion to shoot in the Police Officer’s Dilemma task10.1038/s41598-020-77522-z2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/327850dd2fc644a5a4f0934a14c3a37d2020-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77522-zhttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Violent behavior, police brutality, and racial discrimination are currently at the forefront of society’s attention, and they should be. We investigated whether mild sleep loss—as typical for many adults throughout the work week—could aggravate the socio-emotional-cognitive processes contributing to violence and discrimination. In a sample of 40 healthy young adults, we either experimentally restricted participants’ sleep for four nights (6.2 h/night) or let participants obtain normal sleep (7.7 h/night)—and then had them complete the Police Officer’s Dilemma Task. In this computerized task, the participant must rapidly decide to shoot or not shoot at White and Black men who either are or are not holding a gun. Results showed significant racial biases, including more and quicker shooting of Black targets compared to White targets. Furthermore, signal detection analyses demonstrated that mild sleep restriction changed participants’ decision criterion, increasing the tendency to shoot, even when controlling for psychomotor vigilance, fluid intelligence, and self-reported desirability to behave in a socially acceptable manner. The increased tendency to shoot was also observed in participants who reported believing that they had adapted to the sleep loss. Future experimental research using trained police officers will help establish the generalizability of these laboratory effects. Importantly, sleep loss is modifiable via organization-level changes (e.g., shift scheduling, light entrainment) and individual-level interventions (e.g., sleep hygiene education, incentives for behavioral change), suggesting that if sleep loss is corrected, it could save lives—including Black lives.Michael K. ScullinMichelle R. HeblAbby CorringtonStacy NguyenNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2020)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Michael K. Scullin Michelle R. Hebl Abby Corrington Stacy Nguyen Experimental sleep loss, racial bias, and the decision criterion to shoot in the Police Officer’s Dilemma task
description	Abstract Violent behavior, police brutality, and racial discrimination are currently at the forefront of society’s attention, and they should be. We investigated whether mild sleep loss—as typical for many adults throughout the work week—could aggravate the socio-emotional-cognitive processes contributing to violence and discrimination. In a sample of 40 healthy young adults, we either experimentally restricted participants’ sleep for four nights (6.2 h/night) or let participants obtain normal sleep (7.7 h/night)—and then had them complete the Police Officer’s Dilemma Task. In this computerized task, the participant must rapidly decide to shoot or not shoot at White and Black men who either are or are not holding a gun. Results showed significant racial biases, including more and quicker shooting of Black targets compared to White targets. Furthermore, signal detection analyses demonstrated that mild sleep restriction changed participants’ decision criterion, increasing the tendency to shoot, even when controlling for psychomotor vigilance, fluid intelligence, and self-reported desirability to behave in a socially acceptable manner. The increased tendency to shoot was also observed in participants who reported believing that they had adapted to the sleep loss. Future experimental research using trained police officers will help establish the generalizability of these laboratory effects. Importantly, sleep loss is modifiable via organization-level changes (e.g., shift scheduling, light entrainment) and individual-level interventions (e.g., sleep hygiene education, incentives for behavioral change), suggesting that if sleep loss is corrected, it could save lives—including Black lives.
format	article
author	Michael K. Scullin Michelle R. Hebl Abby Corrington Stacy Nguyen
author_facet	Michael K. Scullin Michelle R. Hebl Abby Corrington Stacy Nguyen
author_sort	Michael K. Scullin
title	Experimental sleep loss, racial bias, and the decision criterion to shoot in the Police Officer’s Dilemma task
title_short	Experimental sleep loss, racial bias, and the decision criterion to shoot in the Police Officer’s Dilemma task
title_full	Experimental sleep loss, racial bias, and the decision criterion to shoot in the Police Officer’s Dilemma task
title_fullStr	Experimental sleep loss, racial bias, and the decision criterion to shoot in the Police Officer’s Dilemma task
title_full_unstemmed	Experimental sleep loss, racial bias, and the decision criterion to shoot in the Police Officer’s Dilemma task
title_sort	experimental sleep loss, racial bias, and the decision criterion to shoot in the police officer’s dilemma task
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/327850dd2fc644a5a4f0934a14c3a37d
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Experimental sleep loss, racial bias, and the decision criterion to shoot in the Police Officer’s Dilemma task

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