Study finds that black men are seen as physically larger and more threatening

[Nitro Fun]

Study finds that black men are seen as physically larger and more threatening than similar-sized white men

http://psycnet.apa.org/?&fa=main.doi...37/pspi0000092

lack men tend to be stereotyped as threatening and, as a result, may be disproportionately targeted by police even when unarmed. Here, we found evidence that biased perceptions of young Black men’s physical size may play a role in this process. The results of 7 studies showed that people have a bias to perceive young Black men as bigger (taller, heavier, more muscular) and more physically threatening (stronger, more capable of harm) than young White men. Both bottom-up cues of racial prototypicality and top-down information about race supported these misperceptions. Furthermore, this racial bias persisted even among a target sample from whom upper-body strength was controlled (suggesting that racial differences in formidability judgments are a product of bias rather than accuracy). Biased formidability judgments in turn promoted participants’ justifications of hypothetical use of force against Black suspects of crime. Thus, perceivers appear to integrate multiple pieces of information to ultimately conclude that young Black men are more physically threatening than young White men, believing that they must therefore be controlled using more aggressive measures.

Well, this certainly can explain why they're more prone to being subject to excessive use of force by the police.

http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/rel...spi0000092.pdf

This study was conducted by researchers who hypothesized that a person's race would influence perceptions of his physical size. This study was conducted in a number of sub-parts. In the first part, participants were given 200 photographs of male faces (100 white and 100 black) and were asked to estimate the height and weight of each person. They found that black males were consistently rated as being significantly taller and heavier than white males. In another part, participants were given faces of white and black males, and asked to choose a body that would match each face. They found that black males were consistently given more muscular bodies than white males were. In a final part, participants were shown white and black male faces, and asked to rate how strong they thought each person was, on a scale from 0-7. They found that participants, on average, rated black males as being stronger than white males. The authors noted in their discussion of results that even black participants showed this bias, although to a lesser degree than white participants did. They suggest this may be due to a partial internalization of cultural values.

[Underverse]

People think black males are more athletic than males of other races. And there's some truth to that.

[Crissi]

Race threads aren't allowed

Closing