The geography of the shooter bias: Regional context is linked to racialized threat perception

The first-person shooter task is widely used for studying discrimination, grounded in theories linking shooter bias to threat-related stereotypes. Yet, evidence for these links remains weak. Using a large sample (N = 2,043) and a multilevel framework, we examined how individual and regional stereotypes and prejudice relate to shooter bias. Reaction time effects replicated robust shooter bias, but the unreliability of shooter bias measures limited individual-difference analyses. Correlations between individual stereotypes and prejudice with response bias for Black targets were small (|rs| = .05-.10), yet detectable given high statistical power. Correlations with regional bias measures were stronger (|rs| = .22-.34), magnifying effects through aggregation. Multilevel analyses revealed that regional bias predicted shooter bias beyond individual biases (contextual effects), and individual-level associations were amplified in high-bias regions (cross-level interactions). These findings underscore the value of regional approaches in revealing subtle psychological patterns and the influence of social context on discriminatory behavior.