Thomas Hawk / Flickr

Racial stereotyping others is more common among people who’ve been drinking alcohol, but just thinking about alcohol can have the same effect. That’s according to a new study by University of Missouri’s Bruce D. Bartholow, who found that people who saw alcoholic beverage ads were more likely to mistakenly see tools as handguns when associated with black male faces.

This is how the experiment went down: participants were shown a bunch of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink ads. Then they saw pictures of black and white men’s faces for a split second, followed immediately by pictures of handguns and tools. Those who were exposed to the alcohol ads were more likely to exhibit racial bias, by mistakenly identifying the tools as handguns after seeing photos of black male faces. Participants who saw non-alcoholic drink ads didn’t make the same mistake as often. The quick speed of the experiment kept participants from over-thinking their responses.

Bartholow previously conducted a similar experiment in which participants actually drank alcohol. But this new study shows that even thinking about alcohol increases racial bias. Bartholow’s assessment: the mental association with alcohol could be enough for people to subconsciously relax their inhibitions and “allow their behaviors to be more influenced by stereotypes,” according to a news release.

The experiment helps shed some light on which external factors can influence racial stereotyping. There are a number of cases in which unarmed black men have been shot or even killed by people who mistakenly saw the men wielding guns. It’s unclear whether the Trayvon Martin case fits this description, although his shooter did say he shot the unarmed black teen in self-defense. But take the case of Amadou Diallo, who was shot to death in 1999 by plainclothes police officers who said they thought Diallo was pulling a gun. The unarmed 23-year-old African immigrant was actually reaching for his wallet.

Streeter Lecka / Getty Images

People are more charitable toward young black children than older black children, according to a new study published in the journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science. Researchers examined data from a large, online charity that solicits donations for school projects. Proposals that included photos of older black children — sixth through 12th graders — didn’t get as many donations than proposals with photos of younger black children. For white children, an opposite pattern exists.

“What we show is as you grow toward adulthood, you come to represent your group in a much stronger fashion. People perceive you more in line with your group stereotypes.” says Deborah Small, one of the study’s authors. “Young children, we don’t penalize them by their [group's] stereotypes. Their ‘groupness’ is not fully formed yet.”

For African Americans, that means teenagers are more likely to be associated with stereotypes of being lazy, thus less deserving of sympathy and charity than young black children or white children, the study’s authors note.

Researchers didn’t have data on the identity of the specific donors, but Small said the online charity’s overall donors tend to be highly-educated, wealthier and living on the east or west coast, which is more liberal.

Researchers also found that people were more charitable toward young black children than young white children. Small said that could be a result of some measure of white guilt, or more likely, that people assume that black kids are more needy than white kids, despite coming from similar economic situations.

The findings on how race and age affect who people think is deserving of sympathy may have implications beyond charities and fundraising, the study notes. For instance, Small speculates they could shed light on juvenile criminal sentencing or other domains “where you’re evaluating the blame-worthiness of a child,” such as adoption, immigration or how the public thinks tax dollars should be spent.

But who’s really saying this stuff? Is it really accurate to call it “[Stuff] D.C. says?”

A couple of people, including @clintonyates, tweeted the video is really things that white people in D.C. say.

@SocialStudiesDC Funny, but very "white DC" tho. You can't have a DC video without the words "bamma" and "uhrea" (DC pronounciation of area)

January 19, 2012 11:42 am via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@ricktagious

Ricky Ribeiro

A few folks pointed out that race and class don’t always intersect:

@IMGoph @ElaheIzadi By "white people" do you really mean young professionals? Age and class ≠ race.

January 19, 2012 11:57 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@GarberDC

David Garber

@GarberDC My co-worker just IM'd me "This sounds like you!" It's definitely not just white people. ;) cc: @mindymoretti @IMGoph @ElaheIzadi

January 19, 2012 11:59 am via iTweet.netReplyRetweetFavorite

@urbanbohemian

urban bohemian

@IMGoph further clarified, tweeting it’s really things said by “young people who live mostly in NW and tend to be mostly white.”

.@Sonya_Wins tweets the “video is funny but only if you hang/work around transplants. Otherwise, you probably won’t get it.” She also suggested a video of “native Washingtonians,” which is used by some as a code word for “black Washingtonian.”

Such complaints over the racial and class implications of the video are classic D.C., writes TBD’s Jenny Rogers. “Complaining about hipsters/white people who aren’t from here/people from the suburbs in D.C. Congratulations…  You’ve just added to the list of [stuff] people in D.C. say.”

To be fair, the entire meme is based on stereotypes, so obviously the D.C. version won’t be able to capture all of the nuances and complexities of our demographic makeup. One line in particular stood out to me: “Wait, isn’t Anacostia, like, really dangerous?” Perhaps the next video should just highlight common stereotypes held by people in D.C.

Courtesy of SocialStudiesDC

D.C., by stereotypes.

Do you take issue with any of the categorizations? Let us know in the comments.