Quote:Summary of Findings
1. The available data on police shootings of unarmed Black men is
incomplete; however, existing data indicate that somewhere
between 13-27 unarmed black men were killed by police in
2019. Adjusted for the number of law enforcement agencies that
have yet to provide data, this number may be higher, perhaps
between 60-100.

• Yet, over half (53.5%) of those reporting “very liberal”
political views estimated that 1,000 or more unarmed Black
men were killed, a likely error of at least an order of
magnitude (see Figure 1).

2. The available data suggest that 24.9% of people killed by police
in 2019 were Black. However, across the political spectrum,
survey participants overestimated this number.

• Those who reported being “liberal” or “very liberal” were
particularly inaccurate, estimating the proportion to be 56%
and 60%, respectively (see Figure 2).
Take-home Messages

1. Our overall findings indicate that people are uninformed
regarding the available data on fatal police shootings in the US.

2. Specifically, we found that the more people reported being
"liberal” or “very liberal” on social and fiscal matters, the
greater the discrepancy between the available data and their
estimations.

3. What might explain peoples’ misestimations of these statistics?
Is it liberals’ relatively greater concern with racism? Differential
media consumption? Perhaps you have an idea or explanation
you’d like to share?