Female police officers make the same snap decisions as males-but trust themselves less

Abstract

We analyse gender differences in police decision-making under conditions of time pressure and uncertainty. 290 student-candidates from a Police College in Spain, equally distributed between females and males and aged 18 to 25, completed three vignettes in which different scenarios, frequently encountered by police officers in their daily duties, are sequentially represented. Females and males did not differ in the amount of time and information they used before making a decision, in the adequateness of said decision, or in the perceived difficulty of the scenarios. However, females expressed less confidence than males in their own decisions. The results are discussed in relation to stereotype threat.