ABSTRACT

Fast and accurate decision-making are central in police officers’ duties. The processing of information relevant to inform decisions can be biased by the state of mind of officers, notably in the presence of stressful conditions. We sought to examine the link between different sources of stress and the presence of an interpretation bias in a task presenting ambiguous faces. A sample of 234 Canadian police officers took part in an online study measuring the number of stressful life events and the level of occupational stress. Participants were assigned to a stress-induced group or a control group. The stress induction was a challenging arithmetic task and the control task was a non-challenging arithmetic task. Participants indicated if the facial expression of 60 ambiguous faces was ‘negative’ or ‘positive’. The dependent measure was the mean number of positive interpretations. Perceived stress level, measured on a visual analogue scale, collected throughout the task indicated that the induction was successful. We found no difference in interpretations resulting from the stress induction. We did however find a significant negative correlation between the perceived stress measures and the interpretation of the faces; higher levels of perceived stress were associated with less positive interpretations. The number of stressful life events and occupational stress level were not associated with face interpretation. Paperwork and fatigue were reported as the most stressful aspects of the job by the officers, consistent with what has been found in studies conducted with police services worldwide. This study also highlights the relevance of perceived stress in police officers.

摘要

快速准确的决策是警察职责的核心。处理与通知决策相关的信息可能会因官员的心态而产生偏差，特别是在压力条件下。我们试图检查不同压力来源与呈现模棱两可面孔的任务中存在的解释偏差之间的联系。一项由 234 名加拿大警察组成的样本参与了一项在线研究，该研究测量了生活压力事件的数量和职业压力的水平。参与者被分配到压力诱导组或对照组。压力归纳是一项具有挑战性的算术任务，而控制任务是一项非挑战性的算术任务。参与者指出 60 张模棱两可的面孔的面部表情是“消极”还是“积极”。依赖测量是积极解释的平均数量。在整个任务期间收集的视觉模拟量表上测量的感知压力水平表明诱导是成功的。我们发现应力感应导致的解释没有差异。然而，我们确实发现感知压力测量与面部解释之间存在显着的负相关；较高水平的感知压力与较不积极的解释有关。压力性生活事件的数量和职业压力水平与面部解释无关。官员们报告说，文书工作和疲劳是工作中压力最大的方面，这与在全球警察部门进行的研究中发现的结果一致。