The Psychological Influence of the Police Uniform

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,The, March, 2001 by Richard R. Johnson

In 1977, after using the blazer-style uniform for 8 years, the Menlo Park Police Department determined that it did not command respect; therefore, they returned to a traditional, paramilitary-style uniform. A final evaluation showed that, although assaults on officers had dropped during the first 18 months of the new uniform implementation, the number of assaults steadily began to rise again until it doubled the amount of the year before the uniform change occurred. During the 4 years after the Menlo Park police returned to a traditional uniform, the number of assaults on their officers dropped steadily. [23]

Experiments with hats and the style of the police uniform suggest that changes in the design of a police uniform can have an effect on the perceived authority, power, and ability to control. Does the color of the uniform psychologically influence the people who view it and have an effect on the officer wearing the uniform as well?

The Influences of Color

Many police departments in the United States use darker colors for their uniforms, such as black, blue, brown, green, or grey. Just as with the style of the police uniform, the color of the uniform also has meaning. Psychological tests have found that individuals associate colors with specific moods. For example, people generally associate red with excitement and stimulation, which explains why agencies often use it for flashing emergency vehicle lights. These tests also have found that individuals associate the color blue with feelings of security and comfort and the color black with power and strength. [24]

Studies of both U.S. high school and college students have found that students perceived light colors, such as white and yellow, as weak, but also as good and active. The same students perceived dark colors, such as black and brown, as strong and passive, but also as bad. Cultural influences did not affect these results, which did not vary with the race of the students. [25]

People in Europe, Western Asia, Central Africa, and the Middle East had similar perceptions of colors. Across all cultures studied, people consistently associated light colors with goodness and weakness and dark colors as strong, but evil. [26] On psychological inventories, test subjects rated lighter colors as more pleasant and less dominant. Dark colors, on the other hand, elicited emotions of anger, hostility, dominance, and aggression. [27]

Color has a considerable impact on clothing and perceptions of the wearer. When people rated pictures of models for attractiveness, clothing color appeared the most common determinant. [28] Individuals perceived job applicants wearing dark business suits as more powerful and competent than those who wore lighter colored suits. [29] Another interesting study found that referees who viewed several videotaped plays of a football game more likely assessed stiffer penalties against a football team wearing a black uniform than against a team wearing a brightly colored uniform. The referees consistently perceived the team in black as more aggressive. An analysis of all professional football and hockey teams in the United States, which found that teams in darker uniforms received far more penalties for roughness than teams in lighter uniforms, supported this experiment. Again, these results suggest that referees negatively perceive teams in darker uniforms. [30]