People interpret ambiguous acts as more aggressive when the actor is Black

Evidence

To answer this question, we can turn to social psychological research on how individuals interpret ambiguous situations and how racial bias affects perception of these situations. In one of the earliest examinations of the effects of ambiguity on race-based decision-making, Duncan (1976) showed that White subjects observing an ambiguous act rated it as more aggressive when the perpetrator was Black compared to when the perpetrator was White. Furthermore, studies have shown that this effect can occur regardless of the perceiver’s own race (Sagar & Schofield, 1980). Such findings suggest that threat can be easily elicited in these contexts and that individuals’ “default” is to interpret ambiguous situations involving racial minorities as threatening. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 272

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s core concern about threat-hardened vs bias-driven perception, and to measured-vs-professed bias (Duncan 1976 is a classic implicit-bias result). — connects to: Audiences misread black street humor as calculated fame-seeking rather than coping culture — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame…, 159
• QUESTION: Does the Duncan ambiguity effect persist, or is it moderated, under framing that makes egalitarian norms salient — relevant to whether rational correction backfires?
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 272