In hindsight: The effect of repeated viewing on public opinion about police use of force

The recent increase in devices that capture images of everyday life make it possible to view - and review - what we hear about the past. Police interventions are a good example - when videos of controversial interactions are available, they are closely scrutinized and commented on by a large and diverse audience, which is evaluating the situation in a much less stressful circumstances than those whose actions are shown. While there are, as yet, no studies that specifically investigate the impact of repeated viewing of videos of police interventions on opinions and attitudes, there are several relevant papers in the fields of marketing, psychology and communication. Using information from this previous work, we looked at the effect on opinion of multiple viewings of a police intervention in which force was used - the kind of incident that is most likely to attract attention from the media and therefore to be seen by a wider public and to generate comments that are both polarized and polarizing. Seventy-eight participants were shown a police intervention involving the use of force on two different occasions a week apart and asked to report their opinion about the intervention, using a format that made it possible to compare their first and second response. Our results strongly suggest that repeated viewing of an intervention has an impact on opinion: respondents had significantly more favourable opinions about the intervention after they had seen it a second time.