Given the vast amount of evidence showing the substantial influence of emotion on decision-making, we examined emotionality—a person’s emotional reactivity to a stimulus—in police use-of-force decision-making between a sample of expert (n = 42) and novice (n = 36) officers. Officers observed body-worn camera footage and described the course of action they would take, the kinds of information they paid attention to, and their assessment of the situation. Natural language processing techniques were used to detect measures of valence, arousal, and dominance from officer responses. Linear mixed-effects models indicated that responses from experts were more positively valenced, more dominant, and less arousing compared with responses from novices. In other words, the ability to react and assess situations calmly, with a greater sense of control, and less negatively seems to be linked with the production of accurate, effective, and efficient behaviors that mark expert policing. These results shed light on the ways in which expert and novice officers understand and experience stimuli involved in use-of-force decision-making. Practical implications for use-of-force training and future directions are discussed.

鉴于大量证据表明情绪对决策的重大影响，我们在专家样本（n  = 42）与警察之间的武力决策中研究了情绪（一个人对刺激的情绪反应）。新手（ñ = 36）军官。官员观察了戴在身上的摄像机镜头，并描述了他们将采取的行动方针，他们关注的信息种类以及对情况的评估。自然语言处理技术被用来从军官的反应中检测价，唤起和支配性的度量。线性混合效应模型表明，与新手相比，专家的回答具有更高的正价，主导性和更少的唤起力。换句话说，冷静地做出反应和评估情况的能力，更大的控制感和消极的消退似乎与标记专家警务的准确，有效和高效行为的产生有关。这些结果阐明了专家和新手官员如何理解和体验与使用武力决策有关的刺激。讨论了使用武力训练的实际意义和未来的方向。