Subliminal Black faces speed recognition of crime-related objects

Evidence

Conveying the effects of “race priming” (displaying an image so quickly that the participant doesn’t realize they’ve seen it) can be powerful. These studies assess how quickly participants see crime related or neutral objects in pixilated images and found that people primed with the face of a Black man were faster to see crime related objects and primed with the face of a White man are slower to see crime related objects when compared to a control of fuzzy orange lines White faces, (Eberhardt et al., 2014)—even when the faces are of five-year-old Black and White boys (Todd et al., 2016). Images are not alone in affecting responses. In one study describing an encounter between two people, participants are more apt to remember aggressive details about a person named “Tyrone” than “William” and even attribute aggressive details that did not occur when the story is about “Tyrone” (Levinson, 2007). — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1365

Categorization

• 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…, 1365