Late adolescents entering college intending a career as police ofﬁcers hold more right-leaning views than their peers

dzara016 — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 18:10:54 +0000

Late adolescents entering college intending a career as police ofﬁcers hold more right-leaning views than their peers dzara016 Mon, 10/20/2025 - 11:10 More Publications Reny, Tyler T., Marcel F. Roman, Benjamin J. Newman, and David O. Sears October 20, 2025

A new article coauthored by Professor Benjamin J. Newman of the UC Riverside Department of Political Science has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), one of the world’s leading scientific journals. The study, titled “Late Adolescents Entering College Intending a Career as Police Officers Hold More Right-Leaning Views than Their Peers,” was coauthored with Tyler T. Reny (Claremont Graduate University), Marcel F. Roman (Harvard University), and David O. Sears (University of California, Los Angeles).

Drawing on survey data from over 13 million late adolescents collected across 44 years, the research examines whether those who plan to pursue a career in law enforcement already differ politically and socially from their peers before entering the police academy. The findings reveal that college-bound students intending to become police officers tend to hold more right-leaning views on topics such as race relations, immigration, gender roles, and criminal justice compared to their peers—particularly when compared to those undecided about their career paths.

Interestingly, these patterns are weaker among non-White respondents and notably reduced among women, suggesting that gender and racial diversity play distinct roles in shaping political orientation among prospective police officers. The study offers an important contribution to ongoing debates about bias and reform in policing, suggesting that differences in attitudes may emerge long before individuals begin formal police training.

As the authors write, addressing bias in law enforcement may require attention to the earliest stages of recruitment and candidate development, including broadening the applicant pool and implementing early bias training.

“Our findings suggest that to reduce bias in policing, reform efforts must begin before the academy,” Newman explains. “We need to understand not just how police are trained, but who chooses to become a police officer in the first place.”

The article is available open access from PNAS:
Reny, Tyler T., Marcel F. Roman, Benjamin J. Newman, and David O. Sears. “Late Adolescents Entering College Intending a Career as Police Officers Hold More Right-Leaning Views than Their Peers.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122, no. 32 (2025). https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2500220122

Graduate Student Bea-Sim Ooi Awarded Prestigious APSA Summer Centennial Research Grant

dzara016 — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 17:21:46 +0000

Graduate Student Bea-Sim Ooi Awarded Prestigious APSA Summer Centennial Research Grant dzara016 Tue, 10/14/2025 - 10:21 More News Donald Zárate October 14, 2025

We are proud to announce that UCR Political Science graduate student Bea-Sim Ooi has been awarded a Second Century Fund grant through the American Political Science Association’s Summer Centennial Center Research Grants program. This highly competitive award supports graduate students conducting original research that advances the field of political science, and Bea-Sim’s project is a perfect example of the rigorous, innovative work coming out of our department.

Bea-Sim’s research focuses on the formation of redistributive policy attitudes and how empathy for those experiencing financial distress shapes support for redistribution. The grant will fund the third chapter of her dissertation, For Them, Not Me: Empathy for Poor Friends and Family, Dimensions of Financial Distress, and Support for Redistribution, which uses a novel perspective-taking survey experiment to test whether inducing empathy for friends or family members in poverty increases support for redistributive policies.

Her dissertation explores contact at multiple levels—from brief interactions with strangers to close relationships with loved ones—and examines how the source of financial distress (e.g., unemployment, health, or housing shocks) affects policy attitudes. Bea-Sim anticipates that emotional bonds with close friends and relatives in need may foster broad support for both targeted and general redistributive measures, illuminating how personal relationships influence political behavior.

This grant will provide crucial resources for conducting her experiments, helping Bea-Sim collect and analyze data that will deepen our understanding of empathy, policy preferences, and social attitudes toward redistribution. We are thrilled to see her work recognized and supported at this level, and we look forward to the insights it will bring to political science research.

Political Psychology

Late adolescents entering college intending a career as police ofﬁcers hold more right-leaning views than their peers

Graduate Student Bea-Sim Ooi Awarded Prestigious APSA Summer Centennial Research Grant