People react differently to descriptions of police violence depending on the names of the victims.
03/26/2026, 07:2003/26/2026, 07:20
This is proven by a new study in which a research team with Swiss participation carried out an experiment with around 16,000 people in Germany.
A demonstration against police violence in Biel. (archive)Image: keystone
The German population systematically assesses identical information about police violence differently when people with a migration background are affected, said study co-author Christoph Steinert from the University of Zurich to the Keystone-SDA news agency. He conducted the study together with Kristine Eck from Aalborg University in Denmark.
For the study, which was published on Wednesday evening in the journal “Science Advances,” the researchers confronted the participants with a fictitious case of police violence that ended up in the hospital for the victim. Half of those surveyed read about a victim named “Thomas Schneider,” the other half read about a victim named “Mohamed Ahmed.”
Evidence doesn’t change minds
The participants received information about an operation in three stages: First, only the official account from the police was described, according to which the victim had resisted arrest. In a second step, they received information that video footage had emerged that demonstrated disproportionate use of force. In the third step, they were informed that an official commission of inquiry had found police misconduct.
Across all three levels, participants judged police violence to be milder and less serious on average when the victim’s name was “Mohamed Ahmed.” The study shows that this distorted perception can hardly be influenced by evidence. “Even if a police supervisory authority declares a case to be police violence, fewer people agree if people with a migrant background are affected by the violence,” says Steinert.
Not directly transferable to Switzerland
According to the study, politically left-wing participants initially showed an opposite tendency and assessed the police’s actions towards a victim with a migrant background more critically. However, this attitude has largely disappeared once the evidence has been presented.
The results cannot be directly transferred to Switzerland, said Steinert. The study was carried out exclusively in Germany with a representative sample of the German population.
“Nevertheless, it can be assumed that similar distorted perceptions also exist in other countries.”
The results have worrying implications for police accountability, the researchers wrote in the study. If a part of the population refuses to acknowledge wrongdoing, even if it is confirmed by a government investigation, this hinders efforts to hold perpetrators accountable. (sda)