You’re a cop, and you come across a random guy who’s holding something that could be a gun. How long does it take you to decide whether or not to shoot? Does the skin colour of the person matter?
This was the question asked by the University of Chicago in an online psychology test, which gives you a split-second to decide whether to shoot the guy or whether to holster your gun for an unarmed individual.
Interestingly, the results showed that black and white participants shot the armed black guys sooner than the armed white guys.
I tried the test twice, because I was confused at first about which button to press, and took a few seconds to get used to the process. The first time I scored really low because I often took too long to make a decision, but my results showed that I took less time to shoot the armed black guys than the white guys.
Strangely though, even though the second time around I wasn’t trying to game the system, just wanted to play it right, I actually shot the armed white guys quicker than the armed black guys… I’m not sure what that means but the test has reinforced the fact that I never should become a police officer, especially as I shot a few unarmed guys too…
Of course the test isn’t realistic at all, but it raises an interesting point.
(via Neatorama)