Intersectional Stereotyping and Discrimination

Intersectional stereotyping is responsible for some of the unique disadvantages faced by specific groups of people. The way that psychologists conduct research, these intersectional stereotypes are sometimes not apparent because of a focus on mostly White, mostly male targets (a problem that I have written about). For example, most work suggests that being tall is advantageous to men because it makes them seem more attractive and intelligent. My work has shown that this is true for White men, but not for Black men; tall Black men are instead perceived as more threatening, which helps explain why tall Black men were disproportionately stopped by NYPD police during the height of stop-and-frisk.

I am currently investigating how intersectional stereotypes influence the process by which we categorize individuals. This work uses mouse tracking to understand when people might hesitate to categorize a person as “more” or “less” of a trait (e.g., people might more fluently categorize Black men as “more dominant” compared to “less dominant”).