Police Recruits’ Cognitive Engagement in a Racial Literacy Education Program: Does Racial Ideology Matter?

Abstract

Studies suggest shorter term racial diversity education is ineffective in changing police officers’ attitudes and behaviors, partly due to strong emotional reactions and resistance to this type of content ( Schlosser, 2013; Zimny, 2015). In this investigation, we explored across two studies whether police recruits’ racial beliefs were related to their level of cognitive engagement in a racial literacy education program. Consistent with the research hypothesis, findings from Study 1 with 81 mostly White male police recruits suggested that recruits with higher color-blind racial beliefs (i.e., greater denial or minimization of institutional racism) as assessed in the first two weeks of the academy were less cognitively engaged in 10 hours of racial literacy education that they received in the training academy. In Study 2, we replicated and extended the results with a separate sample of 74 police recruits. In addition to completing a measure of color-blind racial beliefs at the beginning of their training, participants completed evaluations after each of the three education sessions offered over the course of the police academy. Findings indicated that the recruits’ level of color-blind racial beliefs at the beginning of police academy was associated with lower cognitive engagement in the education sessions. Limitations of the findings are discussed as well as the implications for future evaluation and racism education programming efforts.

Keywords

diversity training color-blind racial ideology police recruits racism racial literacy

The controversy over the fatal shootings of Black and Brown people by police officers has become more visible in recent years because of social media. For example, although Black Americans are only about 12% of the total U.S. population, the rate of fatal police shootings between 2017 and June 2022 stood at 39 per million of the population compared to 16 per million for White Americans, who make up about 60% of the population (Statista Research Department, 2022). The killings of Black boys and men, including Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Philando Castile, were documented through video recordings, yet the rates of indictment and conviction of police officers for such crimes are much lower than they are for other crimes (Chan, 2019). More recently, the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Elijah McClain, and Rashard Brooks have increased international attention to the issue of police violence and anti-Black racism. Historically, there has been tension between communities of color and police because of police misconduct, unfair treatment, and disparities in the use of force (Balto, 2013; Geller et al., 2021; Pryce & Chenane, 2021; Taylor, 2013).

From the aftermath of the Watts Uprising in 1965 to the global Black Lives Matter movement, community members, researchers, and policy makers have urged for police reform. These reforms often include “diversity training” on issues of race and racism (Coon, 2016; Schlosser et al., 2015). Many police units have implemented such efforts. One conclusion is clear from the dearth of empirical research in the area: There is resistance among police officers and recruits to learning about “diversity issues” (Barlow & Barlow, 1993; Schlosser et al., 2015). In one of the few studies in this area, Coon (2016) assessed the concept “diversity fatigue” to explore whether officers had grown tired of hearing about diversity issues. She found that although most officers viewed diversity education as beneficial, more than 50% of the officers endorsed feeling a sense of tiredness when hearing about diversity. More directly related to this project, scholars found that color-blind racial ideology (CBRI)—or the denial, distortion, and minimization of racism—among police recruits is associated with lower empathy toward Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC), which may in turn play a role in their receptivity to diversity education efforts (Lee et al., 2021).

The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) provides a helpful explanation for why CBRI may be influential in recruits’ receptivity toward diversity education. ELM posits that when individuals are motivated to listen to new information, they will spend a good amount of mental effort to evaluate the message based on the quality of arguments and evidence provided (i.e., central route processing) (Holt, 2018). In the ideal world, well-designed and effective education interventions should promote cognitive engagement with the training material through central route processing. We argue that recruits’ motivation to listen to diversity education is predicated on whether they recognize racism and its impact on policing behavior; if police recruits do not understand systemic racism, they will not see how their actions and law enforcement policies perpetuate racial disparities. Therefore, they may not be receptive to listen to the information that is being presented, and instead rely on peripheral cues to judge the content of diversity education.

The purpose of the current study was thus to address the gaps in the literature by exploring police recruits’ level of cognitive engagement or paying attention to the messages presented in the racial diversity education sessions. We were particularly interested in exploring if recruits’ CBRI influenced their level of cognitive engagement based on the research indicating police officers are resistant to racism education, a specific form of “diversity training” (Barlow & Barlow, 1993; Coon, 2016; Schlosser et al., 2015). We intentionally use the term education as opposed to training because in our work with law enforcement personnel they mentioned that the latter was offensive. In this study, we focused on police recruits because it is the point of entry into the profession, and as such, there is an opportunity to further socialize future officers about the importance of racial literacy and empathy toward diverse communities. We define racial literacy as “the ability to identify and resolve racially stressful social interactions” (Stevenson, 2020, para 2). Racial literacy education—one type of racism education—focuses on increasing awareness of the meaning of one's social identities, cultural humility, and knowledge about the historical forces shaping systemic racism (Price-Dennis & Sealey-Ruiz, 2021).

Racism Education Programming with Law Enforcement

The few studies on racism education programming within law enforcement has produced mixed findings. Schlosser (2013) and Zimny (2015) both explored police recruits’ color-blind racial beliefs before and after participation in a 12-week police academy, which incorporated a module on culture, race, and racism. Recruits in these studies did not report increased awareness of race and racism. Findings from at least one retrospective qualitative study, however, indicated that police officers perceived implicit bias education as helpful in promoting improved communication, increased engagement, and better culturally informed decision making with community members (Whitfield, 2019). But not all education programs are created equal.

Some racism education programs take place in one day and others span across multiple days, with the latter producing stronger effects. Bornstein and colleagues (2012) noted that the length and comprehensiveness of the diversity education experiences are linked to changes in police officers’ racial beliefs and other outcomes. They found that police officers increased their awareness about race and racism (i.e., reported a significant decrease in CBRI) after participating in a semester-long ethnic studies course. Taken together, findings suggest that longer interventions may produce lasting changes in racial beliefs and that there may be some benefit to brief implicit bias training in terms of perceived community relationships.

There is limited research, however, on the factors that may influence police officers’ receptivity or resistance to (diversity) education programming (Wolfe et al., 2022). More research is needed to understand key factors associated with police officers’ reaction to diversity education. This type of research can provide data to better understand why education programs succeed or fail (Wolfe et al., 2022). We can turn to the broader literature on racial beliefs to shed light on potential factors that might influence receptivity to such programming. For example, evidence suggests that previously held racial prejudice and levels of awareness of racism influence the way people respond to information about diversity-related issues (Coon, 2016; Sanchez & Medkik, 2004), including racial inequity (Phillips & Lowery, 2015) and white privilege (Conway et al., 2017; Cooley et al., 2019).

Elaboration Likelihood Model: The Role of Cognition in Understanding New Information

In this study, we applied the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) to guide our exploration of the factors that might influence recruits’ receptivity to a racial literacy education program. ELM is a widely known dual-processing model and has been applied in the fields of social psychology, business, and marketing in understanding persuasion communication. According to ELM, an individual processes information through two mechanisms—central route and peripheral route—based on the amounts of thoughtful mental effort or the individual's subjective elaboration demand (Li, 2013). When individuals evaluate new information, they can take the low road, known as the peripheral route, where they rely on mental shortcuts and low-effort heuristics to form judgments about new information (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). People can also follow the central route, where they spend more time and cognitive effort in evaluating the merits and legitimacy of the new information (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986).

ELM provides a framework for scholars to understand changes to interventions, such as racism education programming. The central implication of ELM is that when conducting diversity education for police recruits, content should focus on eliciting central processing, where people are motivated to thoughtfully examine education materials in response to strong and credible arguments. If education programming is effective at increasing people's awareness of racial bias and changing their attitudes and behaviors, the programming should be first evaluated based on whether participants are cognitively engaged in the materials and receptive to the new information. Holt (2018) used the ELM model to examine African American and White American adults’ perceptions of the Black Lives Matter movement. Findings suggested that race-related issues are emotionally charged, and that White people's understanding of race and racism is more likely to bias individuals’ evaluation of the message because people may not see the relevancy or motivation to learn about racism. Moreover, preexisting racial opinions could be so calcified on the polar extremes of the issue that regardless of how persuasive new information could be, strong preexisting racial beliefs could overpower other factors in influencing how individuals perceive incoming messages.

Potential Influence of CBRI on Engagement in Racism Education Programming

Previously held racial beliefs influence adults’ responses to race-related education (Coon, 2016; Holt, 2018; Sanchez & Medkik, 2004; Whitfield, 2019). For example, although police officers viewed race-related education as helpful, they often reported having a strong emotional reaction to the material, specifically on the removal of racial bias or increase of awareness and understanding of racism (Whitfield, 2019). CBRI is a contemporary belief that has been studied among a wide range of populations, including police recruits (Bornstein et al., 2012; Hughes et al., 2016; Lee et al., 2021).

There are two general types of CBRI: power evasion or the denial of institutional racism and color evasion or the denial of racial group membership. Individuals with higher levels of power evasion CBRI defer to individual choices to understand racial inequities rather than systemic inequity and, in turn, focusing on the individual as the root cause of inequality supports the racial status quo (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). In this investigation we were interested in power evasion CBRI because it has been found to be related to a range of relevant attitudes and beliefs, more so than color evasion. Greater power evasion CBRI is related to greater racial prejudice and intolerance and lower levels of multicultural and social justice actions (Author). Police officers report greater levels of power evasion CBRI compared to the general public (e.g., Hughes et al., 2016) and increased power evasion CBRI among law enforcement is reflected in less sensitivity to community policing (Glover, 2007) and lower empathy toward People of Color (Lee et al., 2021). Drawing on insights from ELM and previous correlation studies, we were specifically interested in recruits’ CBRI and how this racial worldview influenced their level of cognitive engagement in racism education programming.

Rationale and Purpose

Evaluation data on the effectiveness of racism education programming among law enforcement is less convincing than it is for other community groups (Bornstein et al., 2012; Schlosser, 2013; Zimny, 2015). Part of the issue is that racial beliefs may influence how officers process the content presented in such education efforts. Police recruits are often trained to fear the “cultural diversity” where they serve (Beliso-De Jesús, 2020). And thus, it is not surprising that findings from the diversity education literature suggest the need for further research on the mechanisms in which police learn and interpret information about this type of education. More importantly, evaluation efforts should explore factors that influence officers’ receptivity to information presented in education programming (Wolfe et al., 2022). Understanding which variables influence participants’ receptivity to listening to and processing the information presented in the education programming can inform the development of education efforts and ultimately increase their effectiveness.

The purpose of the current study was to further explore police recruits’ reactions to a racial literacy education program by examining their cognitive engagement in the material presented. We extend previous studies (Schlosser, 2013; Whitfield, 2019; Zimny, 2015) by examining the influence of CBRI on recruits’ cognitive engagement in the programming. We used both CBRI and ELM theories to guide the study. According to the key premises of ELM, cognitive engagement often is influenced by personal relevancy as well as strong preexisting beliefs about specific emotionally charged topics, such as racism or racial bias (Holt, 2018). Consistent with the core principles of ELM, we explored if police recruits’ CBRI predicted their cognitive engagement in diversity education focused on race and racism. Based on previous studies documenting an association between CBRI and racial intolerance (Yi & Todd, 2021), we hypothesized that CBRI would relate to recruits’ cognitive engagement in the racial literacy education program, such that higher levels of CBRI would be associated with lower levels of recruits’ motivation to engage in the education materials. In Study 1, we examined the association between police recruits’ CBRI and the overall level of cognitive engagement across the three separate education modules toward the end of the police academy. In Study 2, we aimed to replicate Study 1 using a different sample; we examined the relationship between CBRI and police recruits’ level of cognitive engagement in the education programming at the end of each training session (i.e., evaluation for three time points).

Study 1

The purpose of the Study 1 was to examine the relationship between CBRI and police recruits’ level of cognitive engagement in a racial literacy education program. We hypothesized that higher levels of CBRI at the beginning of the police training program would be related to their reactions to the education program, specifically lower levels of engagement in the material.

Method

Sample

The sample was drawn from a larger study evaluating the effectiveness of a 10-hour racial literacy education project within a Midwestern police training program. Participants in the current study were 81 police recruits (68 men, 12 women, one was missing). The sample was overwhelmingly White American (83.5%; n = 66), with a small percent of People of Color: Latinx (n = 8), African Americans (n = 4), and biracial individuals (n = 2); one person did not indicate their race. Participants ranged in age from 22 to 39 years old (M = 26.39, SD = 5.18). Approximately 28% (n = 23) recruits had military service.

Racial Literacy Education

A racially diverse interdisciplinary team developed the 10-hour education program based on research on cultural competencies in psychology (APA, 2015), interdisciplinary critical race theory (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995), and input from police and community member stakeholders. The primary facilitators were a White male police director, a Black male historian, and a Black female psychologist. The sessions included content that covered racial awareness, knowledge, and skills. Each session incorporated mini lectures, interactive discussions, short videos, and case scenarios, and the last session included a community-police panel discussion. The education module in the first session included information defining race, ethnicity, and culture and explaining cultural competencies and cultural humility. The second session included information about the different types of racism (e.g., individual/interpersonal, institutional, cultural) and their relation to policing. In the second session, racial microaggressions, stop-and-frisk policies, and ways in which officers can make a difference in their communities were covered. Participants listened to and asked questions of a racially diverse panel in the last session. Community and police panelists discussed their experiences with police officers and their recommendations for improving police and community relations. A pizza break was provided in the middle of each of the three sessions.

Procedure

Police departments from across the Midwestern state, who send their recruits, to attend the police training program were notified about the 10-hour racism education project. The chief of police in each department voluntarily chose whether their new recruits would participate in the racial literacy education programming; it was extremely rare that a recruit was excluded because of their chief's decision. In this sense, nearly all the recruits had the opportunity to participate in the current study. At the time of data collection, the education program was divided into three sessions across the 12-week police academy.

Although participants were enrolled in the racial literacy education project by their department, they provided informed consent to participate in the research aspect of the project. Participants were informed that they could decline to participate or withdraw from the research portion of the project at any time without any consequences. Individuals who declined or withdrew their consent attended the education sessions, but they did not complete research-related surveys. Someone from the police academy that was not affiliated with the project collected the data. Participants completed a survey in the first two weeks of the academy and at the end of the academy. Participants’ pretest scores on the CBRI measure and the overall evaluation of the racial diversity education program collected at posttest were analyzed. A sample of 86 was first screened for missing data and human errors. We removed two observations because they circled the highest score on every item. Three additional observations were removed because they did not respond to more than 80% of the survey. The final sample was a total of 81 observations.

Measures

Demographic Information

Participants were asked to provide information on gender, race, and age.

Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS; (Neville et al., 2000)

This 20-item scale was included to measure power evasion color-blind racial beliefs. Items are rated on a 6-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). The CoBRAS measures levels of unawareness on three domains: Racial Privilege (e.g., “Everyone who works hard, no matter what race they are, has an equal chance to become rich”), Institutional Discrimination (e.g., “Due to racial discrimination, programs such as affirmative action are necessary to help create equality”), and Blatant Racial Issues (e.g., “Racism may have been a problem in the past, but it is not an important problem today”). Higher scores reflect greater levels of denial and unawareness of race and racism. The summed and averaged mean for the total scale was used in the study. The CoBRAS yielded acceptable reliability estimates of .76 with police samples (Hughes et al., 2016). Cronbach's alpha for this study was .81. CoBRAS has been found to be positively correlated with modern racist attitudes, gender intolerance, and a belief in a just world (Neville et al., 2000).

Elaboration Likelihood Model Questionnaire (Heppner et al., 1995)

The ELMQ Cognitive Involvement subscale was included to evaluate recruits’ level of cognitive engagement in the racial literacy education project. The ELMQ questionnaire consists of 12 items rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale with higher scores indicating more favorable conditions for central route attitude change. Central route attitude change focuses on participants’ evaluation of the message, their ability to judge for good and appropriate quality while feeling motivated to listen and be involved in issues-focused topics, and demonstration of a stable attitude change (Heppner et al., 1995). The two subscales assess participants’ (a) cognitive engagement with the topic (e.g., “How motivated were you to listen to the presentation?”) and (b) evaluation of the presentation's quality (e.g., “The presenter made a good point about the topic”(Heppner et al., 1999). In the study, we only used the average score for EMLQ Cognitive Involvement subscale, which consisted of 8 items from the original scale. In previous research, EMLQ alpha scores ranged from .51 (Stephens & George, 2009) to .83 (Heppner et al., 1995). Cronbach's alpha for ELMQ Cognitive Involvement subscale was .83 in the current study. The ELMQ score was shown to positively relate to participants’ thinking about the message, talking about the message, and telling friends about the message (Heppner et al., 1995). Higher scores in EMLQ Cognitive Involvement represent greater cognitive engagement in the education materials.

Results

Missing Data

In the first phase of data cleaning, the dataset was screened for any data entry errors, and the number of missing values were identified. There were less than 1% missing values in the study sample. These data were found to be missing completely at random (i.e., Little's MCAR test, ρ = .08.), thus the expectation-maximization (EM) function in SPSS version 24 (IBM, 2017) was used to handle the missing data.

Preliminary Analyses

The data were screened for univariate normality through assessing histograms, skewness, and kurtosis statistics. Data that met criteria for normality, skewness, and kurtosis were within ± 1, which was considered normal data according to Tabachnick and Fidell (2013). There were two outliers on the CoBRAS total score; the outliers were replaced with the next extreme score (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2013).

Due to limited racial diversity, all People of Color participants (i.e., Black, Latinx/Latino/Hispanic, biracial) were collapsed into one code. This option was selected because we did not have enough power to detect differences between each racial/ethnic group without introducing small sample bias (Stevens, 2002). Recent research suggests there are no statistically significant differences racial/ethnic group differences on the CoBRAS between Black, Latinx, Asian American, and multiracial adults (Abrams et al., 2021). Gender and race were dummy coded: both female and underrepresented minority group were coded as 0 and male and White were coded 1. Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations among the study variables are presented in Table 1. We found a significant negative correlation between CoBRAS and ELMQ Cognitive Involvement. CoBRAS had a significant positive correlation with race and ELMQ Cognitive Involvement had a significant negative correlation with race.

Table 1.

Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations for study 1 variables.

Variable	Mean	SD	1	2	3
1. Gender	.85	.36
2. Race	.81	.40	−.01
3. CoBRAS	3.85	.62	.15	.32*
4. ELMQ – Cog Inv	3.09	.79	.05	−.23*	−.40**

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

CoBRAS – Color-blind Racial Attitudes Scale, scores range from 1 to 6; ELMQ Cognitive Involvement: total is the recruits’ level of cognitive engagement in the racial literacy education, scores range from 1 to 5.

Main Analyses

To test the first research question, we conducted a hierarchical multiple regression with gender and race (step 1) and CoBRAS total score (step 2) as the predictor variables, and the ELMQ Cognitive Involvement as the dependent variable (see Table 2). The results showed that step one of the model was not statistically significant, $R^{2}$ = .05, F (2, 75) = 2.02, p = .14. When introducing CoBRAS in the second step, the overall model was significant, $R^{2}$ = .18, F (1, 74) = 12.07, p ≤ .01, accounting for 18% of the variation in the level of ELMQ Cognitive Involvement. Introducing CoBRAS explained an additional 13.3% of variation above and beyond the effect of gender and race. CoBRAS had a significant negative relationship with ELMQ Cognitive Involvement (β = -.40, p ≤ .01). In other words, for every one standard deviation increase on the recruits’ CBRI, their levels of cognitive engagement would decrease by .40 standard deviation.

Table 2.

Hierarchical multiple regression result predicting ELMQ cognitive involvement from CoBRAS.

Variables	B	SE B	$β$	$R^{2}$	$Δ R^{2}$	$Δ F$ (dfs)
Step 1				.05	.05	2.02 (2, 75)
Gender	.01	.25	.004
Race	−.45*	.21	−.23*
Step 2				.18	.13	12.07** (1, 74)
Gender	.16	.24	.08
Race	−.19	.22	−.10
CoBRAS	−.48**	.14	−.40**

*Estimate is significant at the 0.05 level.

**Estimate is significant at the 0.01 level.

CoBRAS – Color-blind Racial Attitudes Scale; ELMQ Cognitive Involvement: total is the recruits’ level of cognitive engagement in the racial literacy education, scores range from 1 to 5.

Discussion

The results indicated that greater levels of CBRI or the denial of institutional racism among the recruits at the beginning of the police academy predicted lower levels of cognitive engagement in a racial literacy education program, as assessed at the end of the training academy. This finding supports our hypothesis that level of CBRI influences police recruits’ reaction to the education program. In this case, police with higher levels of CBRI were less engaged with the racial literacy education program and less motivated to listen to the training materials. This implies that participants’ preexisting level of awareness of systemic racism can be an important factor influencing the effectiveness of diversity training programs for police recruits.

Study 2

The purpose of Study 2 was to replicate and extend Study 1 findings by examining the relationship between CBRI and the level of engagement after each of the three diversity education sessions using a new sample of police recruits. One limitation of Study 1 was that we only evaluated recruits’ engagement in the diversity education intervention once, at the end of their training in the academy. The inclusion of session evaluations will provide us information about whether specific education modules are more engaging than others.

Method

Sample and Procedure

A total of 74 police recruits participated in the research study. The sample consisted of 55 men (74.3%) and 19 women (25.7%). Similar to Study 1, the majority of the sample was White American (75%; n = 54), with a small percent of People of Color: Latinx (n = 8), African American (n = 4), Asian American (n = 1), and biracial individuals (n = 5); two people did not indicate their race. Participants ranged in age from 21 to 38 (M = 26.03, SD = 3.83). Approximately 14.1% (n = 13) of recruits had military service.

Diversity Education

Participants completed the 3-session, 10-hour diversity education program as described in Study 1.

Procedure

Participants were recruited in a similar manner as in Study 1. Recruits completed the CoBRAS during the first two weeks of the 12-week academy and a session evaluation survey at the end of each of the three training sessions.

Measures

We used the demographic sheet, CoBRAS (pretest), and ELMQ Cognitive Involvement subscale (after each education session) described in Study 1.

Results

Preliminary Analyses

We screened for missing data and data entry errors. There were less than 2% missing values in the sample, and the degree for missingness was explored. These data were found to be missing completely at random (i.e., Little's MCAR test, ρ = .70), thus the EM function in SPSS was used to handle the missing data. Next, the data were screened for univariate normality through assessing histograms, skewness, and kurtosis statistics. Data that met criteria for normality with skewness and kurtosis were within ± 1 (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2013). There were three outliers on the CoBRAS and one outlier on the ELMQ Cognitive Involvement for sessions 2 and 3. All outliers were transformed into the next extreme scores (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2013). Again, the intercorrelations among interested variables were presented in in Table 3. There was a significant negative correlation between CoBRAS and ELMQ Cognitive Involvement mean scores across three sessions of the education module.

Table 3.

Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations for study 2 variables.

Variable	Mean	SD	1	2	3	4	5
1. Gender
2. Race			−.04
3. CoBRAS	3.42	.70	−.26*	.25*
4. ELMQ-1 Cog Inv^a	4.06	.66	.08	−.03	−.24*
5. ELMQ-2 Cog Inv^a	3.65	.73	−.08	.07	−.26*	.63**
6. ELMQ-3 Cog Inv^a	3.66	.75	−.16	.00	−.26*	.63**	.85**

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Cognitive Involvement factor of ELMQ.

Main Analyses

To test the main hypotheses, we conducted three separate hierarchical multiple regression analyses with gender and race (step 1) and CoBRAS (step 2) as the predictor variables, and ELMQ Cognitive Involvement session ratings as the dependent variable. Table 4 presented the summary of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis for all interested variables that predict police recruits’ motivation to listen to messages. The overall model was not significant, $R^{2}$ = .05, F (1, 68) = 3.15, p = .08 for the first session. However, the overall models were significant for sessions 2 and 3: $R^{2}$ = .11, F (1, 68) = 7.90, p ≤ .01 and $R^{2}$ = .13, F (1, 68) = 8.84, p ≤ .01, respectively (see Table 4). Moreover, CoBRAS explained an additional 10% to 11% of variation in both sessions 2 and 3. In session 2, CoBRAS had a negative association with ELMQ Cognitive Involvement (β = −.35, p ≤ .01). In session 3, both CoBRAS and gender had a significant negative relationship with ELMQ Cognitive Involvement: β = −.37, p ≤ .01 and β = −.25, p < .05, respectively.

Table 4.

Hierarchical multiple regression results predicting ELMQ cognitive involvement by racial diversity education session.

Variables	B	SE B	$β$	$R^{2}$	$Δ R^{2}$	$Δ F$ (dfs)
Session 1 ELMQ Cog Inv
Step 1				.01	.01	.32 (2, 69)
Gender	.14	.18	.09
Race	−.03	.18	-.02
Step 2				.05	.04	3.15 (1, 68)
Gender	.03	.19	.02
Race	.05	.18	.03
CoBRAS	−.22	.12	−.23
Session 2 ELMQ Cog Inv
Step 1				.01	.01	.34 (2, 69)
Gender	−.12	.20	−.07
Race	.11	.20	.07
Step 2				.11	.10	7.90** (1, 68)
Gender	−.30	.20	−.18
Race	.25	.20	.15
CoBRAS	−.37**	.13	−.35**
Session 3 ELMQ Cog Inv
Step 1				.02	.02	.66 (2, 69)
Gender	−.24	.21	−.14
Race	−.001	.21	−.002
Step 2				.13	.11	8.84** (1, 68)
Gender	−.44*	.21	−.25*
Race	.14	.20	.09
CoBRAS	−.40**	.14	−.37**

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

CoBRAS – Color-blind Racial Attitudes Scale, scores range from 1 to 6; ELMQ Cognitive Involvement: total is recruits’ level of cognitive engagement in the racial literacy education, scores range from 1 to 5.

Discussion

The result in Study 2 replicated the finding in Study 1 showing that CoBRAS had a negative impact on police recruits’ cognitive engagement with the racial literacy education program. The findings indicated that the negative association between police recruits’ CBRI and level of cognitive engagement strengthened over time across the three sessions of the racial literacy education program. It was also noteworthy that gender had a significant negative association with ELMQ Cognitive Involvement in session 3, such that over the course of the program men became less cognitively engaged with the material than women

General Discussion

There has been increased efforts in the United States to provide the police community with diversity education since the killing of Michael Brown in 2014 (Mitchell & James, 2018; President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, 2015). Data suggest that police recruits and officers are resistant to these education efforts, especially those focusing on race and racism. The purpose of this study was to address the gaps in the literature by exploring the influence of police recruits’ CBRI on their receptivity or cognitive engagement in racism education programming. Findings across two studies support our hypothesis—previous racial beliefs affected participants’ level of cognitive engagement in diversity education centering topics on race and racism.

Our findings support Bezrukova and colleagues’ (2016) meta-analysis on general diversity education with a broad range of samples, not just police; their findings suggest people's resistance to diversity education is due to one's belief system and self-identity, where previous experiences impact people's evaluation of incoming information. This is particularly prevalent for sensitive topics, such as racism or racial bias, where people already have a calcified ideology about the issues and hence feel less favorably toward information that counter their own belief. This also is consistent with literature on ELM framework where police recruits were less likely to rely on deep thinking to engage the training information and were more likely to use mental shortcuts to evaluate the information (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986; Taber & Lodge, 2012). Findings indicate that police recruits in this study come with preexisting racial beliefs that influence how individuals perceive incoming messages (Holt, 2018). Furthermore, it is noteworthy that the effect of previous racial belief on individuals’ cognitive engagement lasted over time (i.e., at sessions 2 and 3) across the 12-week police academy in Study 2. One possible explanation for why the CBRI was not related to cognitive engagement in the first session is that Session 1 was more superficial, consisting of introductions to one another and the frameworks used in the racial literacy education program. Sessions 2 and 3 provided a deeper exploration into the topic of structural racism and its impact on policing. Police recruits thus could become more resistant toward training overtime as they were exposed to greater race-focused content in the training.

Previous research on law enforcement provided mixed findings whether training was effective in increasing the level of awareness of race and racism among police officers. Schlosser (2013) and Zimny (2015) did not report increased awareness after a 12-week training program, while Bornstein and colleagues (2012) found that a semester-long ethnic course did produce a decrease in color-blind racial belief. The results from Study 1 and 2 provided a possible explanation for the mixed findings in that the racial belief at the time trainees enter the program could impact their level of engagement and motivation to listen to the training materials. Moreover, motivation might be different when individuals self-select to be in the course for training.

In addition, power evasion CBRI is rooted in the understanding of the existence of structural racism, and thus focusing on identifying ways to present information about racism in the criminal justice system and in society that both engages and does not shut down police recruits maybe the next step. For example, mental shortcuts often relied on preconceived knowledge or prejudice from previous experiences, and we know that structural racism is embedded in socializing processes such as housing, neighborhood segregation, and demographic concentration of BIPOC within a community. These factors all impact policing behaviors (Siegel, 2020); thus, we cannot view training in police academy as a one-stop shop where methods to break down structural racism are introduced and taught. Instead, they should be implemented through all learning opportunities, such as in school and outside in community spaces (Siegel, 2020). We should consider a larger context where these recruits were born and raised and how their community history may influence their learning and policing behaviors.

Limitation and Future Directions

This research extends previous literature in evaluating the effectiveness of racial diversity training (Schlosser, 2013; Whitfield, 2019; Zimny, 2015), but it also includes some limitations. It is limited in terms of the use of self-reported measures, and future studies should consider additional ways to increase the depth of information via focus groups or follow-up interviews. This may help to detect which content or topics that police recruits respond to and where they have the most reactions. The current sample also includes mostly White male police recruits in a Midwestern training program. Based on previous research indicating that People of Color had lower levels of CoBRAS beliefs compared to White individuals, we combined the small percentage of participants of color into one group in the analysis. It may be that we lacked statistical power to determine racial differences on the level of cognitive engagement. Future studies may benefit from including a more diverse sample and with larger sample size, so that comparison between different demographic characteristics can be made. In additional, future studies should consider a longitudinal experimental design to evaluate effectiveness based on identified outcomes of the research goals.

Implications

Police violence and misconduct against communities of color is a long-standing tradition in the United States that has received increasing attention with viral videos. Calls for change from both communities of color and law enforcement often center around increased police training. If we propose racial literacy education interventions with police as a possible change agent, we must strive to ensure the education interventions are effective. Our work suggests practitioners and researchers must continue to adapt and evaluate racial literacy education so that it is meaningful for police populations, allowing for the integration of both emotion and logic toward deep engagement and understanding. Based on previous research, we offer two specific recommendations for practitioners to consider. First, racial literacy education programs might consider incorporating strategies to develop empathy toward People of Color. Lee and colleagues (2021) found that greater ethnocultural empathy was related to lower CBRI among police recruits. Thus, explicitly discussing the concept of ethnocultural empathy in which recruits have opportunities to engage in perspective taking activities to understand the feelings of others and opportunities to communicate empathic responses to People of Color could reduce some of the defensiveness around learning about structural racism. Similarly, based on the growing research documenting the effectiveness of cross-racial friendships in promoting ethnocultural empathy (see Lee et al., 2021), racial literacy education efforts may consider incorporating activities to meaningfully observe cross-racial friendships; these forms of indirect relationships have been found to produce similar effects as actual cross-racial friendships, but they do not include the potential negative harm that could be done to the Person of Color who is placed in the position to humanize people in their community. We must also be realistic about the challenges presented by the preexisting belief structures that law enforcement brings with them to the job and craft interventions that are capable of not only surface level behavior change but also in-depth investigation of what one essentially believes about themselves, others, and the world. It seems that future racial literacy education programming should include activities that focus on information, emotions, and behaviors to increase recruits’ openness to information about race(ism) and their level of cognitive engagement in education efforts.

Supplemental Material

sj-docx-1-raj-10.1177_21533687221117279 - Supplemental material for Police Recruits’ Cognitive Engagement in a Racial Literacy Education Program: Does Racial Ideology Matter?

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-raj-10.1177_21533687221117279 for Police Recruits’ Cognitive Engagement in a Racial Literacy Education Program: Does Racial Ideology Matter? by Tuyet-Mai H. Hoang, Helen A. Neville, Abisola Smith, Maria Valgoi, Michael Schlosser and Sundiata K. Cha-Jua in Race and Justice

Footnotes

Author Note

There is no conflict of interest from all authors.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Tuyet-Mai H. Hoang

Supplemental material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

Author Biographies

Tuyet-Mai H. Hoang is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She completed her MS degree in 2017 and her PhD degree in Counseling Psychology at the University of Illinois in 2020. Dr. Hoang's research focuses on exploring psychological factors that maintain systematic racial-ethnic inequality and disparity in mental, behavioral and physical health outcomes. She was the recipient of American Psychological Association Minority Program Fellowship from 2017 to 2019.

Helen A. Neville is a professor of Educational Psychology and African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is President-Elect of the Society of Counseling Psychology, Past-President of the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race (APA Division 45), and past Associate Editor of The Counseling Psychologist and of the Journal of Black Psychology. Her research on race, racism, and African American psychology has been published in a wide range of journal articles and she has co-edited 8 books in this area.

Abisola Smith is the current Student Conduct Coordinator at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 2017 majoring in Psychology and minor in Communication. In 2019 she graduated with a Master in Psychological Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Maria Valgoi is an assistant professor of psychology at Governors State University and a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of Illinois. She completed her Ph.D. in 2016 at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign intersecting her studies in the counseling psychology and African American studies departments. Her research utilizes participatory action methodology to partner with organizations (such as schools, small businesses, and law enforcement entities) that wish to create trauma informed practices and policies but whose workforce has had limited formal mental health training.

Michael Schlosser is the director of the University of Illinois Police Training Institute. Dr. Schlosser has conducted and collaborated in numerous research projects at the University of Illinois and is credited for his innovative ideas toward police reform. He has authored dozens of articles, made numerous radio and television appearances, and given over 100 presentations across the country on topics such as police tactics, police training, use of force, de-escalation techniques, control and arrest tactics, the intersection of police and race, diversity, police officer wellness, and police family wellness.

Sundiata K. Cha-Jua is a professor of African American Studies and History at the University of Illinois. He authored America's First Black Town, Brooklyn, Illinois, 1830-1915, Sankofa: Racial Formation and Transformation, Toward a Theory of African American History, and co-edited Race Struggles with Theodore Koditschek and Helen Neville. Cha-Jua was President of the National Council for Black Studies, 2010-12, 2012-14, Senior Editor of The Black Scholar, 2011-15; Associate Editor of the Journal of African American History, 2015-18 and a member of the Executive Council of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), since 2016.

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