Racial bias in implicit danger associations generalizes to older male targets

PLoS One. 2018 Jun 6;13(6):e0197398. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197398. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Across two experiments, we examined whether implicit stereotypes linking younger (~28-year-old) Black versus White men with violence and criminality extend to older (~68-year-old) Black versus White men. In Experiment 1, participants completed a sequential priming task wherein they categorized objects as guns or tools after seeing briefly-presented facial images of men who varied in age (younger versus older) and race (Black versus White). In Experiment 2, we used different face primes of younger and older Black and White men, and participants categorized words as 'threatening' or 'safe.' Results consistently revealed robust racial biases in object and word identification: Dangerous objects and words were identified more easily (faster response times, lower error rates), and non-dangerous objects and words were identified less easily, after seeing Black face primes than after seeing White face primes. Process dissociation procedure analyses, which aim to isolate the unique contributions of automatic and controlled processes to task performance, further indicated that these effects were driven entirely by racial biases in automatic processing. In neither experiment did prime age moderate racial bias, suggesting that the implicit danger associations commonly evoked by younger Black versus White men appear to generalize to older Black versus White men.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Aged
  • Black or African American / psychology*
  • Face
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Racism / psychology*
  • White People / psychology*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, grant # 1523731 to ARD and 1625401 to RN. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.