The Impact of Implicit Bias-Oriented Diversity Training on Police Officers' Beliefs, Motivations, and Actions

Abstract

U.S. police departments have attempted to address racial inequities in policing with diversity training. However, there is little evaluation about whether these trainings are effective at changing officers' beliefs, motivations, and actions. To examine their efficacy, we tested a daylong implicit bias-oriented diversity training that sought to increase U.S. police officers' knowledge of biases, concerns about bias, and use of evidence-based strategies to mitigate bias (total N = 3,764). Relative to baseline, the training was immediately effective at increasing knowledge about bias, concerns about bias, and intentions to address bias. However, the effects were fleeting. Although the training was linked to higher knowledge for at least one month, it was ineffective at durably increasing concerns or strategy use. These findings suggest that diversity trainings as they are currently practiced are unlikely to change police behavior. We conclude with theorizing about what organizations and training programs could do for greater impact.

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“…Finally, Study 3 was completed at only one time point, meaning we were unable to capture changes in attributions and preferences over time. It could be that, even for the those who spent the most time on the tasks, the effects of the educational article were short lived, as is common in diversity and anti-bias training (Lai & Lisnek, 2023). If so, the tentative success of the treatment article that we found may not have been evident if measured a week later.…”

Innovations Concerning Diversity Training and Organizational Development Interventions for Police Officers Using Reflection and Talking Circles

“…Additionally, dialogue between the learner and the facilitator is an important part of ensuring that knowledge is successfully transmitted and understood. Combining these two elements of experiential learning and dialogue creates an effective training environment that can be easily adapted to a variety of settings and topics (Morris, 2020;Seaman, Brown & Quay, 2017;Kolb & Kolb 2017;Sabie-Aridi, Burrell & Richardson, 2022).…”

“…This type of learning encourages learners to actually practice and reflect on the content being taught, a process known as reflectionin-action. Experiential learning often requires learners to explore real-life scenarios to provide more context for learning (Morris, 2020;Seaman, Brown & Quay, 2017;Kolb & Kolb 2017).…”

“…The combination of experiential learning and dialogue is an effective strategy for delivering successful training sessions. Experiential learning provides a means for learners to gain direct experience of the subject matter and develop a more comprehensive understanding (Morris, 2020;Seaman, Brown, & Quay, 2017;Kolb & Kolb 2017). Dialogue helps to ensure that learners connect the material to realworld experiences and allows them to reflect on how they can apply the content to their own lives (Robbins, 2018).…”