Abstract
Facial characteristics are reliably associated with social judgments, but these relationships may depend on whether a judgment is consistent with stereotypes of the target’s social group. Across four studies with adult participants, we tested this possibility using perceived aggression and threat in Black and White faces. Perceived dominance (Study 1, N=117) and physical strength (Study 2, N=626) predicted aggression judgments less strongly for Black than White faces. Dominance also predicted perceived threat less strongly for Black than White faces after controlling for several threat-related covariates (Study 3, N=380). Furthermore, machine learning analyses found less overlap in dominance- and threat-predictive facial information for Black faces. Finally, face morphing that matched featural variation across race while manipulating apparent race showed a weaker dominance-aggression relationship for Black-appearing faces (Study 4, N=467). Together, these findings are consistent with the possibility that facial evidence has reduced influence on judgments of stereotype-consistent traits.