Racial Bias and In-group Bias in Judicial Decisions: Evidence from Virtual Reality Courtrooms

Abstract

We shot videos of criminal trials using 3D Virtual Reality (VR) technology, prosecuted by actual prosecutors and defended by actual defense attorneys in an actual courtroom. This is the first paper that utilizes VR technology in a non-computer animated setting, which allows us to replace white defendants in the courtroom with individuals who have Middle Eastern or North African descent in a real-life environment. We alter only the race of the defendants in these trials, holding all activity in the courtroom constant, creating arguably perfect counterfactuals (http:// proficient.ninja/splitscreen/). Law students, economics students, practicing lawyers and judges are randomly assigned to watch with VR headsets, the trials that differed only in defendants' race. Background information obtained from the evaluators allowed us to identify their cultural heritage. Evaluators made decisions on guilt/innocence in these burglary and assault cases, as well as prison sentence length and fine in accordance with the guidelines provided by the relevant law. There is evidence that evaluators are harsher towards defendants of their own race during the guilt-innocence decision. In the sentencing phase, we find in-group bias in the opposite direction: evaluators are more lenient towards defendants of their own race. This is the first paper that identifies such opposing effects of bias within the same decision sequence. Regarding overall racial bias, we document that minorities are more likely to get convicted, and that they are given stiffer punishment, conditional on conviction. We find only scant evidence that the concerns of the evaluators about terrorism, about immigration, or their trust in the judiciary or the police have an impact on their judicial decisions, suggesting that the source of the bias may be deep-rooted. Merging a small sample of judges and prosecutors with the sample of lawyers provides results that are very similar to those obtained from the analysis of lawyers.

Does Race Matter for Police Use of Force? Evidence from 911 Calls

“…The advantage of West (2018) is he has objective information on whether certain citations were merited, which is not possible for use of force. In addition, this paper also complements research on racial bias in the criminal justice system more generally, including racial bias by prosecutors (Rehavi and Starr 2014, Sloan 2019, Tuttle 2019, juries (Anwar, Bayer, and Hjalmarsson 2012;Flanagan 2018) and judges (Arnold, Dobbie, and Yang 2018;Bielen, Marneffe, and Mocan 2018). 2 A second contribution of our paper is to demonstrate how the 911 call dispatch system can be used to assess the performance of individual officers, as well as for officers grouped by characteristics such as race.…”

Intergroup contact with a virtual refugee: Reducing prejudice through a cooperative game.

“…For example, Dotsch and Wigboldus (2008) found that people kept a farther distance when interacting with a virtual agent representing an outgroup member and displayed stronger negative association in implicit association tests used to measure implicit bias. In virtual courtrooms, participants were more likely to convict racial minority suspects to harsher punishments compared with White suspects (Bielen et al, 2018).…”

Innovation for Positive Sustainable Legacy From Mega Sports Events: Virtual Reality as a Tool for Social Inclusion Legacy for Paris 2024 Paralympic Games

“…It is possible to provide lived experiences through VR, which can enhance awareness and lead to attitudinal change (Friedman, 2005;Beadle and Santy, 2008;Li et al, 2011;Kandaurova and Lee, 2019). These applications often align with the broader objective of tackling discrimination and promoting diversity; and researchers have utilized VR to address gender and racial bias and to encourage social inclusion (Beadle and Santy, 2008;Bielen et al, 2018;Lopez et al, 2019). Specifically, studies have found that virtual embodiment of white people in a black virtual body is associated with an immediate decrease in implicit racial bias (Banakou et al, 2016).…”

“…We propose that, as a technological innovation, VR delivered through diversity training in sport organizations or used as a recruitment tool to engage the participation of disabled persons, could increase empathy toward persons with a disability, decrease social ableism (of and in persons with a disability), and therefore foster greater social inclusion in sport organizations. VR has been proven as a powerful mechanism used to tackle discrimination, promote diversity, and encourage attitudinal change (Beadle and Santy, 2008;Bielen et al, 2018;Lopez et al, 2019) but has yet to be applied in the context of sport, as an innovative approach to achieve a social inclusion legacy.…”