Must Read: Wearing A Police Uniform Changes The Way The Brain Processes Information! Find Out Here

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A recent study conducted by a team of cognitive neuroscientists at McMaster University found that just putting on a uniform, similar to one of a person in authority, automatically alters how the brain processes information. The researchers found that it changes how a person perceives others, thereby creating a bias feeling towards those considered to be of a lower social status.

The study raises important questions about stereotypes and profiling, and also how the symbolic power and authority related to police uniforms could influence these tendencies. "We all know that the police generally do an excellent job, but there has also been a great deal of public discourse about biased policing in North America over recent years," senior author of the study and an associate professor of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, Sukhvinder Obhi said.

He added that they set out to explore whether the uniform, independent of other areas of the police subculture, work experiences or training, could have an impact. The researchers conducted a series of experiments to examine how study participants, all of which were university students, shifted their attention while performing specific tasks. They made the participants to put on police-style attire in some cases, according to Esciencenews.

In an experiment, the researchers asked the participants to identify a simple shape on a computer screen which were distracted by images of black male faces, white male faces, persons dressed in business suits and others dressed in hoodies. Their reactions were analyzed times so as to compare it to how long the participants were distracted by the certain images.

The study authors were surprised when they discovered no difference in reaction times and also no evidence of racial profiling whether the images were white or black male faces. They note that this is surprising as previous research, most of which was conducted in the United States revealed that many people associate African Americans with high level of criminal activities.

The researchers noted that although further study is necessary to better understand this, the findings indicate a clear lack of racial bias. They think it could highlight a potentially important difference between the Canadian and the American society.

However, the researchers noticed some differences in the reaction of participant when they viewed photos of individuals wearing hoodies. They found that the Reaction times slowed down, suggesting that the images of persons with hoodies were attention-grabbing. But the bias towards individuals wearing hoodies were only seen when the study participants were wearing the police-style attire.

The researchers believe that there is a stereotype that links hoodies with crime and violence, which could be activated to a higher level when putting on a police style uniform. This might account for the changes in attention that was observed and given that attention influences how people see the world, biases towards certain groups of people can be problematic, according to Science Daily.

They think the findings of the study are most important for police officers, who could subconsciously perceive a threat where none exist or vice versa. They hope to further study the uniform and its effect on police officers. The researchers published their findings in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.