Does Racial Bias in the Identification of Threatening Stimuli Generalize to Older Black Men?

We examined whether implicit stereotypes of younger Black men as physically threatening extend to older Black men. In Experiment 1, participants categorized objects as weapons or tools, following briefly presented prime images of men who varied in age (younger, older) and race (Black, White). In Experiment 2, we used new prime images of younger and older Black and White men, and participants categorized words as threatening or safe. Results revealed robust racial biases in object and word identification, replicating prior research: Threatening stimuli were more quickly and accurately identified after Black primes, whereas non-threatening stimuli were more quickly and accurately identified after White primes. Process-dissociation analyses further indicated that these effects were entirely driven by racial biases in automatic processing. Prime age did not moderate any of these effects, suggesting that implicit threat-based racial biases commonly evoked by younger Black men appear to extend to older Black men.