Objectives

To experimentally evaluate the effects of personal protective equipment (PPE) on participants’ perceptions of police during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

As part of the experimental paradigm, participants were randomly assigned to read a fictitious news article about the utility of PPE (i.e., pro-PPE, anti-PPE, or neutral), and then rate images of a police officer using different items of PPE (i.e., masks, goggles, face shields, and/or medical gloves) along eight dimensions.

Results

The analyses reveal that participants overwhelmingly perceived the use of PPE as both important and beneficial, regardless of condition. The analyses also reveal that the use of PPE impacted perceptions of the pictured officer, but that the specific perceptual effects of such PPE varied by the item used.

Conclusions

Police worldwide have attempted to reduce the risks associated with COVID-19 by using PPE. In addition to functional benefits, many items of PPE also present perceptual benefits.

中文翻译：

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公共卫生危机期间警察对个人防护装备 (PPE) 的使用：公众感知的实验测试

目标

在 COVID-19 大流行期间通过实验评估个人防护装备 (PPE) 对参与者对警察的看法的影响。

方法

作为实验范式的一部分，参与者被随机分配阅读一篇关于 PPE 效用（即支持 PPE、反对 PPE 或中立）的虚构新闻文章，然后对使用不同 PPE 物品的警官的图像进行评分（即，面罩、护目镜、面罩和/或医用手套）沿八个维度。

结果

分析表明，无论条件如何，参与者绝大多数都认为使用 PPE 既重要又有益。分析还表明，使用 PPE 会影响对图中军官的感知，但这种 PPE 的具体感知效果因所使用的物品而异。

结论

世界各地的警察都试图通过使用 PPE 来降低与 COVID-19 相关的风险。除了功能上的好处外，许多 PPE 物品还具有感知上的好处。