Anti-bias training and perceived force climate: links with prejudiced attitudes in United Kingdom policing

Legate, N., Weinstein, N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2200-6617, Graham, L. and Plaster, M. (2023) Anti-bias training and perceived force climate: links with prejudiced attitudes in United Kingdom policing. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 33 (4). pp. 929-939. ISSN 1099-1298 doi: 10.1002/casp.2682

Abstract/Summary

Anti-bias training has been viewed as the solution to prejudice in organizations, yet the evidence is mixed in real-world settings. Some point to the broader organizational climate that training takes place in as critical, and herein we investigate one aspect: communicating about bias in autonomy-supportive (i.e., non-shaming) ways. Using the 2019 National Well-Being and Inclusion Survey of UK police officers and staff (n=34,529 in 43 forces), we tested links of participating in anti-bias training, perceived autonomy-supportive communication, and their interaction on prejudiced attitudes. Results revealed a negligible effect (R2=0.001) of participating in anti-bias training but a moderate effect (R2=0.05) of perceiving autonomy-supportive communication predicting lower prejudice. Their interaction was significant but negligible (R2=0.001): participating in anti-bias training predicted lower prejudice when perceiving autonomy-supportive communication; there was no link between training and attitudes without autonomy-supportive communication. Implications for improving the effectiveness of anti-bias training in applied settings and research are discussed.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/110521
Identification Number/DOI	10.1002/casp.2682
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology
Publisher	Wiley
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