For Black men, being tall increases threat stereotyping and police stops
Abstract
Young Black men are stereotyped as threatening, which can have grave consequences for interactions with police. We show that these threat stereotypes are even greater for tall Black men, who face greater discrimination from police officers and elicit stronger judgments of threat. We challenge the assumption that height is intrinsically good for men. White men may benefit from height, but Black men may not. More broadly, we demonstrate how demographic factors (e.g., race) can influence how people interpret physical traits (e.g., height). This difference in interpretation is a matter not of magnitude but of meaning: The same trait is positive for some groups of people but negative for others.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- March 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1714454115
- Bibcode:
- 2018PNAS..115.2711H