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Mistaken identifications are the primary cause of wrongful convictions. Though studies have examined when these errors are likely to occur, none have specified whom these errors are most likely to affect. We address this oversight by arguing that the type of crime committed affects whom eyewitnesses misidentify. Study 1 demonstrated that people have stereotypes about a perpetrator’s appearance that vary by the crime committed. Study 2 showed that these stereotypes affect identifications in a stereotype-consistent manner—participants who believed they saw a target accused of a stereotypically Black crime remembered him as being higher on perceived stereotypicality (viz., having more Afrocentric features) than did participants who believed they saw a target accused of a stereotypically White crime. This finding was replicated in Study 3 using a different pair of crimes. These studies demonstrate that the type of crime committed systematically affects whom eyewitnesses mistakenly identify. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates whether within-group differences in perceived phenotypic racial stereotypicality can exacerbate implicit racial stereotyping for Blacks among both ingroup and outgroup members. Two studies with non-Black (Study 1) and Black (Study 2) participants confirmed that high stereotypical (HS) Black targets (i.e., those with darker skin, broader noses and fuller lips) elicited stronger implicit bias in split-second “shoot/don’t shoot” situations than low stereotypical (LS) Black targets or White targets. Specifically, a lower shooting criterion was adopted for HS Black targets, indicating a greater willingness to shoot HS Black targets, resulting in more pronounced bias. Results suggest that the perceived phenotypic racial stereotypicality of Black targets can increase the accessibility of stereotypes linking Blacks with danger, which intensifies racial bias. Further, the article provides the first empirical evidence that stereotypicality biases operate at implicit levels among Blacks when evaluating ingroup members. The implications for stereotypicality research and policing are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]