Abstract
Three findings motivated this study. First, "decision to shoot" research has provided robust evidence of visual racial bias in police officers and the US population (Payne & Correll, 2020). In threat detection experiments, patterns of hit rates, false alarm rates, and reaction times show that typical participants "shoot" an armed target more frequently and quickly when that visual target is Black rather than White. However, participants decide "not to shoot" an unarmed target more frequently and quickly when the target is White rather than Black. Second, various mindfulness meditation practices reduce racial biases on the classic Implicit Association Test (Leuke & Gibson, 2015; Stell & Farsides, 2016; Korsmo, 2019). Third, meditation practices improve visual detection, discrimination, and sustained attention under some conditions (MacLean et al. 2010). In this pilot study, eight Caucasian participants completed four administrations of Correll's online "first-person shooter task" (FPST; Correll et al., 2002). During the task, images appeared for 1-sec of men holding either a weapon or a non-weapon (randomized: White, armed; White, unarmed; Black, armed; Black, unarmed). Within each 1-second trial window, observers had 630 ms to "shoot" or "not shoot" by pressing one of two keys. Between the four FPST administrations, four participants (including a retired policeman) heard 6-minute recordings of a LovingKindness (LKM) meditation. Four others (including another retired policeman) heard 6-minute recordings of a meditation lecture without meditation practice (control group, Korsmo, 2019). On the first administration, all 8 participants demonstrated considerable implicit pro-White/anti-Black racial bias. After four FPST administrations, each of the 4 LKM participants improved overall accuracy (d') and reduced anti-Black/pro-White racial bias on average AND relative to four controls. Can contemplative practices reduce implicit or unconscious racial bias and improve visual detection accuracy when real rapid life-or-death appraisals are required? These very preliminary experimental results will motivate further study.