{"id":373,"date":"2012-08-24T13:54:03","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T17:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/policeresearchlab\/?post_type=cu_people&#038;p=373"},"modified":"2026-02-24T15:15:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:15:03","slug":"alyssa-ferns","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/policeresearchlab\/people\/alyssa-ferns\/","title":{"rendered":"Alyssa Taylor-Ferns"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"mb-6 cu-pageheader cu-component-updated md:mb-12\">\n    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 pb-5 after:w-10 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px\">\n                    \n             \n                \n            <\/h1>\n\n    \n    <\/header>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ph.D. Research:<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>The Influence of Target Race on Split-second Shooting Decisions in Simulated Scenarios: A Canadian Perspective<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n        \n    \n    <dl class=\"cu-description cu-component-updated\">\n        \n    <div class=\"grid pt-4 pb-3 border-b accordion border-cu-black-100 md:pt-6 md:pb-5 first:border-t\">\n        <dt class=\"font-semibold not-prose\">\n            <button class=\"flex items-center justify-between w-full text-left accordion__button\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-controls=\"accordion-abstract\">\n                <span class=\"flex-1 ml-auto text-left break-words whitespace-normal cu-icon\">\n                    Abstract\n                <\/span>\n                <svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" fill=\"none\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" stroke-width=\"1.5\" stroke=\"currentColor\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-slot=\"icon\" class=\"w-5 h-5 ml-auto transition-transform rotate-0 accordion__icon text-cu-black-500\">\n                    <path stroke-linecap=\"round\" stroke-linejoin=\"round\" d=\"M8.25 4.5l7.5 7.5-7.5 7.5\"><\/path>\n                <\/svg>\n            <\/button>\n        <\/dt>\n        <dd class=\"p-0 mt-0 cu-prose cu-prose-first-last accordion__content md:p-0 md:mt-0\" hidden=\"\" id=\"accordion-abstract\">\n            \n\nResearch in the U.S. has indicated that community members often show a negative Black bias when deciding to \u201cshoot\u201d Black versus White targets in simulated shooting tasks, but police officers often fail to show this bias. Three studies were conducted using a shooting task similar to the task used in previous research to examine whether this Black bias was present in the shoot\/don\u2019t shoot decisions of Canadian participants. In addition, factors that were likely to increase or decrease the degree of racial bias in such decisions were examined. Study 1 (<em>n\u00a0<\/em>= 146) found that samples of students, police recruits, and police officers displayed a White bias rather than a Black bias in their shoot\/don\u2019t shoot decisions. Study 1b (<em>n\u00a0<\/em>= 74) indicated that this finding was not attributable to the specific instructions provided to participants before they made their shoot\/don\u2019t shoot decisions, which differed slightly from previous research, in that the purpose of the research was more salient. Study 2 (<em>n\u00a0<\/em>= 130) introduced scenes that varied by complexity to students, police recruits, and police officers. As expected, and consistent with Study 1, this study demonstrated that a White bias existed in the shooting decisions of participants and that this bias was exacerbated under conditions of high complexity. Finally, Study 3 (<em>n\u00a0<\/em>= 120) demonstrated that student participants exhibited a White shooting bias even when attempts were made to reduce the bias using an implementation intention training technique, which has been shown to reduce racial biases in previous studies. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed, focusing primarily on potential reasons for the White shooting bias and what the bias might mean for use of force training. Directions for future research are also suggested.\n\n\n        <\/dd>\n    <\/div>\n\n\n    <\/dl>\n\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cu_people_first_name":"Dr. Alyssa","cu_people_last_name":"Taylor-Ferns","cu_people_initials":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_people_type":[6],"cu_people_expertise":[],"class_list":["post-373","cu_people","type-cu_people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_people_type-alumni"],"acf":{"cu_people_job_title":"Professor,  Algonquin College","cu_people_degree":"Ph.D. (Carleton University)","cu_building":false,"cu_people_office_num":"","cu_people_pronoun":"none","cu_people_designation":"","cu_people_email":"","cu_people_phone":"","cu_people_phone_ext":"","cu_people_linkedin":"","cu_people_bluesky":"","cu_people_twitter":"","cu_people_instagram":"","cu_people_facebook":"","cu_people_website":"","cu_people_orcid":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/policeresearchlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/policeresearchlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/policeresearchlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_people"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/policeresearchlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/policeresearchlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1666,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/policeresearchlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/373\/revisions\/1666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/policeresearchlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/policeresearchlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_people_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/policeresearchlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_type?post=373"},{"taxonomy":"cu_people_expertise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/policeresearchlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_expertise?post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}