Interpreting Events Involving Police: Liberals, Conservatives, and Moderates in the Face of Ambiguity

Abstract

We show political divisions in perceptions of police officers even before the divisive political and social events of 2016. We do so using 517 MTurk respondents’ interpretations of surprising and ambiguous headlines involving police officers (e.g., assumptions about what happened or who was involved). We constructed the headlines using affect control theory’s ABO event structure and derivations of this structure. The headlines describe ostensibly good people (A) doing bad things (B) to other good people (O) or are ambiguous on one or more of these components. We find that police headlines generate interest among readers. When interpreting events, respondents are less likely to modify or redefine police officers compared to other actors However, assumptions related to ambiguous events involving police differ by political orientation. Liberals view police more negatively than conservatives, in part because they imagine them doing worse things to slightly better people. Qualitative analyses support and shed light on the mechanisms underlying this and other partisan effects.