Negative biases associating Black men with criminality are most pronounced for a subgroup of men with Afrocentric features (e.g., a wide nose, full lips). Face-type bias occurs for men with these features because they are readily categorized as stereotypically Black and representative of the category Black male. This categorization in turn makes this subgroup more likely to be associated with the criminal-Black-male stereotype than are men with non-stereotypical Black features. In this review, we discuss what features engender the stereotypical Black face, the association between stereotypical features and assumed criminality, and when this bias may lead to negative judgments and potential legal consequences.
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