Coping with occupational stereotypes: an emotional lens on police officers’ experiences

How do public employees cope with negative occupational stereotypes? Limited research examines the psychological processes of how these perceptions shape their behaviour. This study examines how public employees cope with occupational stereotyping and discrimination from the perspective of police officers using an emotion framework. Drawing on 98 hours of observations and 14 in-depth interviews with officers in the Netherlands and the U.S. we find that discrimination tied to professional identity influences officers’ emotional responses, ultimately affecting public service delivery. We introduce an integrated model of emotional appraisal to explain public employees’ coping behaviours and discuss its implications for both theory and practice.