Assertive, but Less Competent and Trustworthy? Perception of Police Officers with Tattoos and Piercings

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate whether police officers should be allowed to wear tattoos or piercings on visible parts of the body or not. One argument often brought forward against it is that such body modifications would cue negative evaluations of officers by citizens that would impede officers’ fulfillment of their duties. Yet, empirical evidence for this claim is missing. The present research aims to close this gap by examining how citizens perceive police officers with tattoos and piercings. In an experiment, participants saw edited photographs of police officers with and without tattoos (study 1) or piercings (study 2). They rated each officer regarding communion, agency, likability, respect, and threat. We found that, as expected, police officers with tattoos and piercings were perceived as less trustworthy and less competent, were liked somewhat less, and triggered higher perceptions of threat. In addition, police officers with tattoos (but not with piercings) were perceived as less friendly and more assertive. Regarding respect, we found no differences between officers with and without body modifications. While our empirical results cannot answer the societal and political question whether police officers should be allowed to wear tattoos and piercings or not, experimental psychological research can contribute to the respective discussions by providing an empirical basis. Our findings further have important theoretical implications, as the opposing effects on competence and assertiveness underline the importance of distinguishing between these two facets of agency in research on social perception and judgment.