The police kill Black Americans at disproportionate rates. Despite this, White Americans remain mixed on support for policing-related policy reform. We examined whether bearing witness to police violence leads to support for policy reforms. Across three studies ( N = 943), White participants either viewed a news video about an unarmed Black man killed at the hands of police or in a car accident due to a collision with another driver. Participants lower but not higher in symbolic racism reported more empathy after viewing a police shooting (vs. car accident) news video (Studies 1–3). Empathy predicted policing-related policy reform support (Studies 1–3) and mediated the relationship between condition and policy reform support (Studies 1 and 3), among those lower in symbolic racism (Studies 1–2). Results suggest that empathy for Black victims of police violence predicts policy support but only among those who recognize that such violence is systemic in nature.

中文翻译：

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论警察枪击事件的作用、对系统性种族主义的认识以及对美国白人支持警察改革的同情


警察以不成比例的比例杀害美国黑人。尽管如此，美国白人对警务相关政策改革的支持程度仍然不一。我们研究了目睹警察暴力是否会带来对政策改革的支持。在三项研究中（N = 943），白人参与者观看了有关一名手无寸铁的黑人被警察杀害或因与另一名司机相撞而发生车祸的新闻视频。象征性种族主义较低但不较高的参与者在观看警察枪击事件（相对于车祸）新闻视频后表现出更多的同理心（研究 1-3）。同理心预测与警务相关的政策改革支持（研究 1-3），并调节条件与政策改革支持之间的关系（研究 1 和 3），在象征性种族主义较低的人群中（研究 1-2）。结果表明，对警察暴力的黑人受害者的同情预示着政策支持，但仅限于那些认识到这种暴力本质上是系统性的人。