Warm or Competent: Perceptions of Gender and How They Influence Consent to Search Situations

Corrie Day Author

04/03/2021 Added

13 Plays

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UCARE presentation on the impact of perceptions of gender on the searchee's perceptions of a consent to search situation.

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[00:00:01.970]Hello. My name is Corey Day
[00:00:03.370]and this is my UCARE project titled:
[00:00:05.060]warm or competent: perceptions of gender
[00:00:06.910]and how they influence consent to search situations.
[00:00:10.140]The Fourth Amendment of the United States constitution
[00:00:12.480]states the citizens have the right to be free
[00:00:14.360]from unreasonable searches and seizures
[00:00:16.370]by government actors
[00:00:17.400]and the individuals can waive this right
[00:00:18.870]by giving valid consent.
[00:00:20.570]For consent to be valid, consent must be voluntary
[00:00:22.950]and not unduly coercive
[00:00:24.300]as decided in Schneckloth versus Bustamonte in 1973.
[00:00:28.330]This voluntariness is determined by examining the totality
[00:00:31.060]of the circumstances which means courts must consider
[00:00:33.420]the variables present at the time of the search
[00:00:35.280]to determine whether or not the consent was voluntary.
[00:00:38.120]When assessing the totality of the circumstances,
[00:00:40.190]courts mainly look at whether or not
[00:00:41.570]a defendant felt free to say no to the search request.
[00:00:44.480]Little empirical research has been conducted
[00:00:46.390]on Fourth Amendment search and seizure issues
[00:00:48.450]and specifically on factors relating to the impact
[00:00:50.760]of the gender of the searcher.
[00:00:52.350]Historically, women are a small percentage
[00:00:54.100]of police departments and have difficulty
[00:00:55.590]breaking into a system dominated by men.
[00:00:58.060]Research suggests that gender imbalances in police forces
[00:01:00.630]can significantly affect an individual's experience
[00:01:03.000]when interacting with the police.
[00:01:04.670]For example, if an officer were a woman
[00:01:06.670]how would you react to her pulling you over
[00:01:08.100]and asking you to search your car
[00:01:09.120]compared to if the officer were a man?
[00:01:11.090]Police departments are highly gendered institutions
[00:01:13.320]which can lead to women officers
[00:01:14.660]existing at the periphery of police subculture
[00:01:16.910]due to the stereotypes they experienced and exhibit.
[00:01:19.670]Many of these behaviors are traditionally warm
[00:01:21.770]including sympathetic responses to victims,
[00:01:24.180]lower rates of force and better communication skills.
[00:01:27.240]Fiske's stereotype content model
[00:01:28.880]documents the importance of warmth
[00:01:30.530]and competence as dimensions and social relations
[00:01:32.850]group stereotypes and behavioral responses.
[00:01:35.470]The different combinations of these dimensions
[00:01:37.320]can create stereotypes.
[00:01:38.610]For example, those viewed as high in competence
[00:01:40.690]and low in warmth are viewed within the envious stereotype.
[00:01:43.870]While those who are low in competence and high in warmth
[00:01:46.320]are viewed within the paternalistic stereotype.
[00:01:48.920]When paired with the dynamic of groups,
[00:01:50.620]these stereotypes can become negative.
[00:01:52.690]With the searcher and the searchee
[00:01:54.020]they're already in separate groups
[00:01:55.230]through the power dynamic
[00:01:56.320]and by adding a second set of groups
[00:01:57.930]like a woman who's a searcher and a man who is a searchee,
[00:02:00.560]these differences can become exacerbated
[00:02:02.600]changing the perceptions of the searchee even more.
[00:02:05.310]Research shows that a quote unquote nontraditional woman,
[00:02:08.060]like women in police forces
[00:02:09.410]can elicit negative attitudes and stereotypes.
[00:02:12.060]Additionally, although the amount of women
[00:02:13.570]within police departments has been increasing
[00:02:15.350]since the 1970s, research on perceptions of women officers
[00:02:18.870]and police citizens interactions is lacking.
[00:02:21.860]By investigating the relationship between searcher agenda
[00:02:24.340]and perceptions of voluntariness,
[00:02:26.290]one may be better able to understand the influences
[00:02:28.450]on an individual's consent to search.
[00:02:30.790]For this study, there are three hypotheses.
[00:02:32.840]The first being that women research assistants
[00:02:34.890]will be rated as higher in warmth and lower in competence
[00:02:37.680]than research assistants who are men.
[00:02:39.730]This hypothesis is slightly different than the following
[00:02:42.040]because these participants never interact
[00:02:43.850]with the researchers in person
[00:02:45.440]where the woman would have had authority
[00:02:46.810]over the participant.
[00:02:48.090]According to Cody et al 2008 study,
[00:02:50.250]origins of warmth and competence
[00:02:51.720]lie within competition and status.
[00:02:53.700]And since there was no status difference
[00:02:55.460]between the search warrants searchee,
[00:02:57.290]I do not think that the women researchers
[00:02:58.880]would have been rated by cold,
[00:03:00.423]rated cold by default.
[00:03:02.610]My second hypothesis is that women will be rated
[00:03:04.530]as more accusatory than men.
[00:03:06.060]And my third hypothesis is that women
[00:03:07.560]will be rated as less respectful than men.
[00:03:09.940]These hypotheses are due to women research assistants
[00:03:12.680]being represented in positions of authority,
[00:03:14.670]similar to Fiske's note of how non-traditional women
[00:03:16.900]can elicit negative stereotypes
[00:03:18.329]and that they're more likely to be rated
[00:03:20.040]with colder tendencies.
[00:03:22.080]This study uses data from a larger study
[00:03:24.070]through the lawn policy lab as well as new data
[00:03:26.300]to determine participants perceptions
[00:03:28.130]of those who search them.
[00:03:29.590]The original blank lab study
[00:03:30.870]investigates an individual's decision to consent to search
[00:03:33.610]by creating a situation where request
[00:03:35.400]to search persons belongings occurs.
[00:03:37.730]In order to make the search request,
[00:03:39.160]a cheating paradigm is employed
[00:03:40.620]where to participant is incentivized to cheat
[00:03:42.470]despite knowing there would be consequences for doing so.
[00:03:45.300]Researchers then accused the participant of cheating
[00:03:47.330]and ask if they would consent to a search of their bag
[00:03:49.360]in order to see if there's evidence of their cheating.
[00:03:51.580]There's never an actual search only the threat of one.
[00:03:54.270]The second study uses photographs
[00:03:55.760]of four of these researchers from the original study
[00:03:58.040]and shows them to different participants
[00:03:59.640]rate them on a five-point Likert scale.
[00:04:01.830]These measures were from Cody et al 2008 study
[00:04:04.480]focusing on friendliness and trustworthiness
[00:04:06.340]as dimensions of warmth and assertiveness and capability
[00:04:08.950]as dimensions of competence.
[00:04:10.840]For both studies, the independent variable
[00:04:12.810]was the gender of the searcher.
[00:04:13.997]And the focus of the analysis was the impact
[00:04:16.130]of the gender of the searcher
[00:04:17.110]on perceptions of the searchee.
[00:04:21.682]First the study one, there were 145 participants,
[00:04:24.197]a hundred of which who were women,
[00:04:26.050]45 of which who were men,
[00:04:27.560]and an age range of 17 to 46 years old
[00:04:29.950]but the largest age group being between 18 and 20.
[00:04:32.910]For study two, there were 98 participants,
[00:04:35.100]75 who were women, 22 who were men
[00:04:37.900]and one participant who identified as other.
[00:04:40.180]The age range was 18 to 26 years old.
[00:04:42.540]And the largest age group was 19 to 21 years old.
[00:04:46.540]All three of these hypotheses were run
[00:04:48.260]with a two way ANOVA that yielded non-significant results.
[00:04:51.400]However, there were some interesting results
[00:04:52.960]regarding hypothesis two and three
[00:04:54.450]that have potential to studies ever replicated.
[00:04:57.070]After running chi-squares with hypothesis two and three
[00:04:59.670]more to participants gave the women researchers
[00:05:01.840]warm judgments than men.
[00:05:03.870]So as you can see with hypothesis two,
[00:05:06.020]it is non-significant as the P value is very high.
[00:05:09.010]But you can see that more participants
[00:05:10.310]said they felt the women research assistant
[00:05:12.040]was not accusing them of a crime.
[00:05:14.220]Participant three same or hypothesis three same issue,
[00:05:18.220]P value is very high,
[00:05:19.890]but you can see that more participants
[00:05:22.340]said the research assistant
[00:05:23.440]treated them more respectfully than men.
[00:05:26.580]So for the main takeaways,
[00:05:28.010]although none of the research results were significant,
[00:05:31.030]there are some interesting results to discuss
[00:05:32.960]not only where the second
[00:05:34.050]and third hypothesis non-significant
[00:05:36.110]but the opposite of my prediction.
[00:05:38.070]This makes sense when looking
[00:05:39.100]at the socio-emotional orientation of women
[00:05:41.050]in society versus men.
[00:05:42.670]Women are traditionally perceived as warm,
[00:05:44.370]while men are traditionally perceived as competent.
[00:05:46.500]Additionally, of looking through the lens
[00:05:47.840]of benevolent sexism,
[00:05:49.130]another element of the stereotype content model,
[00:05:51.440]the default of this view is that women are kind
[00:05:53.670]and would make sense as to why participants ranked the women
[00:05:55.930]who were research assistants as more friendly
[00:05:57.970]and warm than the men.
[00:05:59.980]There are two main research limitations.
[00:06:02.030]The first is poor research requirement timing by SONA.
[00:06:04.870]This semester UNL research requirements
[00:06:07.480]didn't exist for SONA, so I had less participants.
[00:06:10.650]But I think the main issue here is limited exposure
[00:06:13.180]to the research assistants.
[00:06:14.950]It's very difficult to make a snap judgment
[00:06:16.660]off a person's capability or assertiveness
[00:06:19.200]based on one photo.
[00:06:20.890]I think the main thing
[00:06:22.140]is because people just weren't able to do that
[00:06:24.390]they never met the research assistants.
[00:06:26.910]Even if there were multiple photos
[00:06:28.210]I still think this would be a difficult judgment to make.
[00:06:30.280]And this ties in with my proposal for a future study.
[00:06:33.150]One way to make this more cohesive
[00:06:34.630]is to add warmth and competence questions
[00:06:36.390]to the questionnaire the participant takes
[00:06:37.980]in the original consent search study.
[00:06:39.880]This would allow for direct perceptions
[00:06:41.440]of a participant who's searched
[00:06:42.700]instead of a participant who has never interacted
[00:06:44.560]with the researcher in person.
[00:06:46.960]I think that although this research
[00:06:48.130]didn't go the way I intended, it still has value.
[00:06:50.430]More and more women are joining police forces every day
[00:06:52.630]and despite this there's still minimal research
[00:06:54.420]on the impacts they can have with citizens.
[00:06:56.700]Something that was in line with the results
[00:06:58.170]is how women on the force have treated citizens in the past.
[00:07:00.640]They've treated them kindly.
[00:07:01.830]They're known for their deescalation abilities
[00:07:03.980]at the county and honesty and low rates of misconduct.
[00:07:07.020]By investing more research into women officers
[00:07:09.200]this could increase the trust in police,
[00:07:11.980]high rates of police approval,
[00:07:13.440]and more citizen-officer cooperation.
[00:07:17.350]So lastly, I just wanted to say thank you
[00:07:18.850]to Dr. Eve Brank, Dr. Jennifer Groscup,
[00:07:21.250]Emma Marshall, Katherine Hasan, and Abby Shnef.
[00:07:23.405]Thank you so much.

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Warm or Competent: Perceptions of Gender and How They Influence Consent to Search Situations

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