Welcome to the Online Police Officer's Dilemma laboratory demonstration hosted by the Psychology Department of Butler University. In the demonstration, users are asked to decide as quickly and accurately as possible if a person they see is holding a gun or some other innocuous object. This site allows participants to try their hand at this task.
This demonstration task is part of a larger research project that we are conducting at Butler University regarding both the effectiveness of the procedure, as well as student's reactions to participating in the task.
When you complete the task, which takes about 15 to 20 minutes, you will be given some feedback about your accuracy in identifying person's holding guns and how long it took you to make such decisions. More information, including the complete data from the task, is available to instructors who choose to register with us and have their entire class do the demonstration. Instructors can receive item level data in an Microsoft Excel® compatible spreadsheet as well as tools for analyzing, reporting and discussing issues of diversity raised by the demonstration in their class.
