Understanding Sentiment Toward "Black Lives Matter"

A publicized series of police (and other) violence against unarmed Black people over the last decade has fueled unprecedented mass protest as well as political and policy debate in the United States, and beyond. Given this ethical dispute over whether democratic society upholds its cardinal values of freedom and equality for all, sentiment toward Black Lives Matter is suggestive of what people believe police killings, and protest against them, say about the state of democracy itself. In this review, we use the latest empirical evidence in psychology and related sociobehavioral sciences to document sentiment regarding Black Lives Matter. Because continuing racial inequity is a foundational assumption of Black Lives Matter, we will also review the most relevant studies of attention to, knowledge of, and beliefs and feelings about police violence and related acts and issues that may be viewed as indicating racial inequity. Much of this work shows a dramatic divergence of sentiment across racial and political lines, as increased social and political polarization and insulation evidences in divergent attention, cognition, affect, emotion, motivation, and action regarding relevant events and social issues. In this way, examinations of the psychology of such sentiment reveal just how deep the social and political rifts run in society.