Weighting for Justice: How Weight Impacts Judgments of a Simulated Vehicular Pursuit

• In Event: Posters II

Abstract

Officer decisions are complex processes, shaped in part by psychological and environmental information perceived and processed without conscious awareness (Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996), including physical experiences of the body. Research suggests that concrete experiences of the body activate knowledge structures that shape cognition, behaviors, and body movements (Jostmann, 2009; Proffitt, 2005; Zhong, 2009; Lee 2010; Williams & Bargh 2008). Most relevant to the current study is research on weight and cognition. Proffitt, et al. (2003) found that participants who wore a heavy backpack perceived hills to be steeper and estimated distances as longer. Jostmann, et al. (2009) found that holding physical weight was linked to increased ratings of monetary value, issue importance, outcome significance, issue agreement and self-confidence. Such results indicate that adults understand weight as a metaphor for effort, value and importance. Participants in the current study were randomly assigned to one of four conditions before evaluating a vehicular pursuit video. Evaluations of seriousness, dangerousness, importance, and driver guilt increased incrementally as follows: control condition (no added weight, lowest evaluations), metaphorical weight condition (wearing a police badge), physical weight condition (holding heavy clipboard) and both metaphorical and physical weight simultaneously (wearing badge and duty belt, highest evaluations).

Authors

• Holly Ann Lonergan, Bridgewater State University

• Laura Hunt, Bridgewater State University

• Elizabeth Spievak, Bridgewater State University