Quick to the draw: How suspect race and socioeconomic status influences shooting decisions

We examined the role of both suspect race and socioeconomic status (SES) on shooting decisions during a first-person shooter task. Two studies revealed that both suspect race and SES influenced shooting decisions. Non-Black participants shot armed high-SES Black suspects faster than armed high-SES White suspects and responded don't shoot faster for unarmed high-SES White suspects than unarmed high-SES Black suspects. No race differences appeared in the low-SES conditionsresponses resembled high-SES Black suspect. Signal detection, misses, and false alarm analyses revealed participants erred toward not shooting high-SES White suspects. The current studies draw attention to considering both race and SES during shooting decisions.