During the COVID-19 pandemic, racial minorities in the United States were left in a double bind when deciding to wear face masks to prevent the spread of the virus: risk being racially profiled or risk COVID-19. Two studies examine Black and Asian individuals’ experiences of race-related social identity threat wearing face masks during COVID-19, and its impact on safety and health behaviors. Black, Asian, and White participants in the United States responded to surveys (S1: N = 776; S2: N = 534) on their experiences wearing masks early in the pandemic (May 2020) and 3 months later (August 2020). Across both studies, results indicated that, compared to White individuals, Black and Asian participants reported experiencing mask-related, race-based social identity threat from both the public and police, with Black individuals particularly concerned about mask-related threat in police interactions. Mediational analyses demonstrated that mask-related social identity threat led to avoidance of police when help was needed at both time points, and decreased face mask usage early in the pandemic for both Black and Asian people. Results highlight these unique social identity concerns faced by racial minorities and have implications for protecting racial minorities’ health and safety during the pandemic.

Racial disparities in policing are well documented and have a longstanding history in the United States. Across various policing metrics, Black and Hispanic Americans are disproportionately represented in police use of force and fatal force incidents. This chapter reviews the psychological science associated with race and policing. It begins by highlighting racial disparities that exist within policing, including stops, searches, arrests, and use of force, and the lack of quality national-level data that hinders knowledge on this topic. It then turns to how psychological science can explain the causes of such disparities. Focusing on individuallevel processes, it reviews psychological literature on implicit and explicit attitudes, dual-processing systems, stereotypes, dehumanization, social identity theory and threats (stereotype threat, masculinity threat), and social dominance orientation in relation to police behavior. It next discusses contextual-level factors that interact with individual psychology to produce inequitable outcomes, including policing policies, practices, and culture. Finally, it suggests targeted ways to reduce racial bias in policing, including individual-level actions such as officer training, as well as departmental and structural policy initiatives. Reform will require multi-faceted solutions across multiple levels to be effective.

Attention surrounding forceful policing largely focuses on men's experiences, but Black women, even when pregnant, are also harmed by police use of force. Previous research demonstrating anti-Black biases in perceptions of police use of force toward men cannot be directly applied towards women, due to unique stereotypes of Black women and mothers. How do race and pregnancy influence perceptions of police use of force against women? It was expected that pregnancy would elicit more positive responses in the current study, but only when pregnant women were also White. Benevolent sexism (BS) and social dominance orientation (SDO) were tested as moderators of the interaction between race and pregnancy, and perceived physical pain of the woman was tested as a mechanism for disparate outcomes. Data were collected from 463 participants who read a fictitious news article detailing a police use of force incident where the race (Black, White) and pregnancy status (pregnant, not pregnant) of a female target was varied. A survey was used to measure responses towards the target, including support for the amount of force used, victim blaming, and endorsement of disciplinary sanctions against the officer. Results showed main effects of race and pregnancy, where responses were more positive towards Black and pregnant women, with no significant interactions. Tests of moderation suggested that BS and SDO may relate to disparities in police accountability by target race, such that those lower in these social attitudes are more likely to endorse criminal charges against an officer when the woman is Black. Physical pain was not found to be a mechanism. Findings are discussed in relation to theories of prejudice suppression, shifting standards, and social discourse surrounding the Black on decisions to shoot.