(iPoster) The Effects of Visual Cues on Stress Legacies and Perception of Police

• In Event: Poster Session: Public Opinion in the United States

Abstract

This article challenges existing theories grounding civil-police relations in social identities and positionality by exploring the comparative role of how stress and trauma cultivate legacies of insecurity that affect citizens’ perceptions of police. Using a behavioral experiment, this paper examines what factors impact citizens’ ability to (re)appraise their perception of police. The experiment captures participants stress levels through self-reporting and physiological data by exposing them to images of police officers in varying uniforms. The analysis provides new insights on the relationship between stress, visual cues, and how perceptions of militarized vs. non-militarized police officers’ uniforms affect public confidence in police. This pilot study further contributes to our understanding of how accurately scholarship can rely upon self-reported stress when studying sensitive questions about individuals’ perceptions of regime legitimacy, trust in authority figures, and perception of government. While numerous studies have investigated the impact of stress on police officers, little attention has been paid to the citizens’ perspective and how legacy levels of stress affect their ability to trust in police. Due to historic endemic violence throughout many Latin American nations, this study focuses on how legacies of stress and trauma affect first-generation Latin Americans’ interactions with police in the United States.

Author

• Maren Mainx, University of Central Florida