Study: Being tall is a positive trait for white men; For black men, not so much

http://abc11.com/society/study-bein...white-men;-for-black-men-not-so-much/3365503/

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) --
While being tall is an obvious bonus for basketball players, height might just as successfully get you a raise and a job in a boardroom.

Especially if you're a white man.

Height, especially for men, is typically associated with confidence, competence and health. But according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's social psychology department, those positive perceptions are only skin deep.

According to a study published in February, the professional benefits and "good" traits typically perceived in tall men are luxuries enjoyed only by white men. For black men, perceptions of attractiveness and intelligence are flipped. Being tall and black carries a connotation of incompetence and danger.

Professor Kurt Gray and Neil Hester, a graduate researcher studying how race and other social categories interact to influence human judgment, published the study, titled, "For Black men, being tall increases threat stereotyping and police stops." Their research challenges long-held notions of what height means for white men versus black men in the American workplace and social sphere.

"This flies in the face of the way we've thought about height in social psychology," Hester said. "Previous work in social psychology suggests that being tall is wholly beneficial for men, but this work focused only on white targets. Our work suggests that for black men, being tall might be less of a boon, and more of a burden."

Hester and Gray first reviewed nearly a decade of stop-and-frisk encounters from the New York Police Department, a collection of more than 2 million interactions between officers and civilians. While the stop-and-frisk initiative was ultimately struck down for targeting minority groups, Hester and Gray found race to be just one relevant factor in the inflated number of black men stopped in New York - taller black men were especially likely to receive "unjustified attention" from police, they concluded.

Hester and Gray noted that for every white man who was 5'4" tall and stopped by police, 4.5 black men were stopped. Six inches taller and that figure jumped to 5.3 black men per white man. For black men 6'4" tall and higher, 6.2 stops were made for every white man.Hester and Gray followed that survey with a controlled study that echoed their findings from the stop-and-frisk data. Two experiments suggested those who stereotype black men as threatening are likely to view a taller subject as more dangerous than one manipulated to appear shorter. Participants who did not stereotype one race as more dangerous than the other were unaffected by the changes in height.

Some of those factors are situational. For instance, in a job interview,

"I think it's important to understand that the ways race influences our judgment are not straightforward or linear," Hester said. "Effects of race are more nuanced. The effect of being black or white relies on how it intersects with a lot of other factors, like gender and age, but also height, weight or the way your face looks."

There's an inherent context of professionalism as opposed to danger, and perceptions of threats are likely to be dulled regardless of race.

This conflicts with a more casual situation, like a tall black man walking down the street at night, in which Hester and Gray's research suggests both police and civilians are more likely to perceive the man as a threat.

Even on a college campus, being tall, male and black burdens many with that perception of danger. Height is a factor of identity that means different things to tall white students versus tall black students in Chapel Hill.

John Flye, 21, is a junior business major from Charlotte. He's 6'5", he played basketball and football prior to college, and he's white.

Chandler Evans, 22, is a senior English major from Goldsboro. He's 6'3" and he also played basketball and football prior to college. He's black.

Flye recalled aching joints from growing pains while growing up, but other than stray comments from strangers about his height, he said he doesn't think of or even notice his size often. He said he recognizes his height mostly when he goes to grocery stores, where short women often ask him to reach the top shelf, or when he's around a group of shorter people.

"If I walk into a room and I'm the tallest one there, I do feel confident," Flye said. "I don't know why. I wouldn't say I look older than people, but I might seem more professional. It's not them judging me, I don't think, I just feel more confident."

Flye's feelings reflect historical perceptions of height. Tall men are viewed as more confident, professional and intelligent - at least white men are, or black men in overtly professional situations.

Many young black men, like Evans, have a different relationship with their size.

Evans said he's constantly aware of his height. He fields questions about his size from strangers almost daily. He'll catch a rare suspicious glance from a customer at the Wells Fargo where he's a teller. Some customers will forego his booth for another, smaller, white teller. And still, in the final semester of his college career, Evans hears a familiar question on campus: "Which team do you play for?"

He hasn't played organized sports since high school.

"People have always looked at me for my size, not my potential in the classroom, so in most cases I have to monitor how I'm looking," Evans said. "If you're in a room full of people, and as a bigger guy you're going to be noticed first, you don't want to look unpleasant or you can draw the wrong kind of attention."

At work, Evans tries to make sure his facial expression and overall demeanor can't be mistaken as negative or hostile. He said he's drawn the wrong kind of attention in certain circumstances since he hit his growth spurt.

His mom taught him to always exercise excess caution, because as a bigger black man, he would likely be the first person questioned if anything went wrong.

In high school, Evans said there was a disparity in reactions to him between students who knew him and those who didn't. Friends were familiar with his success on the field and in the classroom, but those unacquainted with Evans, he said, often characterized him as "spaced out" or a "big dumb guy" because he didn't look like what his accolades made him out to be.

Today, Evans said he likes the attention his height garners socially, especially from women looking for taller men. But he described himself as low-key, and said he wouldn't mind being a few inches shorter, given the negative attention his height sometimes attracts.

"I'm 6'3", 260 pounds, and I have dreadlocks," he said. "I'm pretty imposing when I don't monitor how I look. But when I look at myself, I just see myself, I don't see me being very hard to approach. It's hard to break away from the idea that you're normal to yourself, but you're not really normal to someone who isn't used to seeing you."

Hester said height, skin color and even the shape of someone's face are just a few of the factors that influence how people perceive one another. Many people likely see a tall man and get the same impression of health and professionalism, regardless of race. But according to Hester and Gray's findings, others have a starkly opposite reaction to height based on the color of someone's skin.

Flye's height might earn him a pay bump. Evans' height might get him stopped by the police.

 

It's good to be a tall man - unless you're black



Researchers at the University of North Carolina asked people to rate white and black men, including the two pictured above, on traits such as competence and threat. The left images represent taller height; the right shorter.


by Michael Boren, Staff Writer @borenmc | mboren@phillynews.com

The taller a guy is, the more attractive, intelligent, and successful he seems, right?


For white men, sure. For black men, not so much.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina recently discovered that tall black men are more likely to be viewed as threatening than tall white men. In fact, the study found, the taller a black man is, the more threatening he appears.


Neil Hester and Kurt Gray analyzed eight years of data — encompassing more than one million cases — from the New York Police Department’s controversial stop-and-frisk program. The analysis showed that:

• At 5-foot-4, police stopped 4.5 black men for every white man.
• At 5-foot-10, police stopped 5.3 black men for every white man.
• At 6-foot-4, police stopped 6.2 black men for every white man.

Hester and Gray also had 400 people examine pictures of white and black men and rate them on traits such as competence and threat. Taller black men were rated as more threatening than shorter black men. Taller white men, on the other hand, were not perceived as more threatening than shorter white men. (The researchers focused on men in their study, not women.)


We talked to Hester about the findings. The responses have been edited for length:

This differs from other studies that have shown it’s advantageous to be tall. Why is that?

A lot of work in social psychology and other fields finds that being tall makes men seem more intelligent, more competent, more attractive, better leaders. These papers argue that being tall is beneficial for men in general — when they’re actually almost exclusively using ratings of white [men].

What we find is that these positive findings don’t necessarily generalize when you include black [men].

Why do you think tall black men are viewed as more threatening than tall white men?

Black men already face severe threats and stereotyping. They’re portrayed in media as being threatening and aggressive. And height is correlated with being more physically powerful or more muscular. So when people see a tall black man, they may draw on their stereotypes of black men as being threatening or having a threatening disposition and combine that with this idea that threat makes you more physically imposing.


This is what leads height to amplify judgments of threat for black men, but not for white men, who don’t face these stereotypes of being threatening or aggressive.

Do you think these findings reflect white privilege?

I do. These findings move us toward a more nuanced understanding of how white privilege works, in that the same traits can be beneficial for white men but detrimental to black men.

What can people learn from these findings?

They can learn that how we judge or stereotype groups is a really complex process where we combine lots of aspects of someone’s identity: their race, their gender, their age, how tall they are, how much they weigh. This combination produces unique patterns of stereotyping and discrimination.


It’s interesting that aspects of our identity that maybe we don’t think of as being that central to our identity, like our height, can play such a strong role in how others perceive us.

What surprised you most about the findings?

The magnitude of the effect in the New York stop-and-frisk program … [the disparity] for shorter vs. taller men surprised me. I wouldn’t have thought it made that much of a difference.

 

Boohoo. The pussy rains from the sky for tall negroes. Legs be opening like the Panama Canal. For the average height dude not so much. And newsflash, tall, well-dressed brothers get the pay bumps too. Probably less than their white counterparts, but more than most. And nobody told that dude to have dreadlocks; that's automatic fuck-with-me status esp. if they're those shitty Chief Keef jailhouse dreads not cultural Rasta dreads, there's a difference. Later for the victimhood shit

 

I can see how outside the work place being tall might be an issue especially depending on skin tone but inside a corporate setting tall dudes get the attention from everyone.

 

How tall are you?

 

no matter the race of the person?

 

No matter the race

 

Okay I have a question. Do you fellas and ladies feel that muscular men or built guys make up for a guy not being "traditionally" tall? For example I'm 5'8, to me I'm short or average but some people refer to me as tall mainly cuz I'm a big guy. I lift so I'm puzzled by this. So does that mean a man's stockiness (pause) makes up for his lack of height. To me it appears as a sort of grey area frim what I've experienced.

 

I'm 23, 6'5, 188lb an ICU RN at a major hospital in Dallas, I certainly get alot of attention from the white females on my floor and in the hospital as a whole and I most definitely take full advantage of it.The black chicks are always salty about it and are constanly giving me the side eye of which I could absolutely care less. However outside of work even in a major city like Dallas I still get piercing stares from everyone from the police to women, men and for some odd reason children. Also, there are major Universities and professional sports teams in the city so I'm sure it's not rare to see someone of my height. I moved from St. Louis, a small/medium city after I graduated from nursing school about 18 months ago and I thought the stares would stop because of me being in a major Metropolitan city, you know the "little fish in a big pond" theory, but they didn't, they seem to actually intensify. However, I can relate to the black guy in the story who says he is constantly asked about his height as I am almost on a daily basis. I haven't experience any overt attention from the police as of yet. Dallas is sort of a progressive city in a conservative state, so there's alot of race mixing especially with black men and white and Hispanic women. So as of right now, my height is an absolute wonderful plus for me and I'm having a blast taking full advantage of it.

 

LOL so why did you dislike my post? According to you I was right. You yourself say the white women are all over you

 

I still think overall it's a plus. It's true that for very tall men there are things they have to be aware of and adjust for because there are those who are going to be intimidated. But that could also be said of any Black man. When you are very tall you aren't going to be one to easily hide in the group. You naturally stand out. That can be a good thing or not. Depends on if you are up to standing in it.

Everyone has attributes that can be considered positive and negative depending on how it's spun.

As for Mike asking about if beefing up compensates for height - no it doesn't. It's different. But again, it's a matter of we all have attributes that are positives and negatives depending. I think it's simply a matter of doing the best with what you have.

People are going to have their preconceived ideas about every little thing. Most often, they aren't even aware of much of that. There isn't really much you can do about that and it's crazy to think that you can live your life trying to fix other people's notions. Use what you have to your advantage.

 

I don't really see how this can even be called a study. Very shotty research at best.

The only thing their so called research actually concluded was that BLACK men are stopped more often than white men regardless of height, which we already knew. Drawing the conclusion that height is an issue based on there was an even higher percentage of tall Black men stopped than tall white men....please. What are the actual ratios of tall Black men compared to tall white men in New York??

OH and those pics in the study are ridiculous!!

 

It all depends in my opinion. Being in good shape goes a looooonnnngggg way if the other guys aren't

 

Oh of course. But bulking up isn't going to make him appear taller. Sometimes men who are slim look taller than they are. Men with longer legs may look taller than they are too. I'm 5'4 (actually just shy of it) and people think I'm taller than I am because I'm short wasted and have longer legs. Proportions can make a difference.

Often men who really bulk out will look shorter than they are.

 

No image of the 6'3 tall black man?

 

so i was right....the blacker the taller one gets more play across the race lines...

 

Not necessarily in a bulking up to appear "taller" persay, but more dominant manly looking thing. I'm not saying this, women have said this to me and other guys I know. It's like they ignore the fact someone is 5'8-5'9 because he is more weight proportioned to "handle" them. Don't think it works that well for the shorter guys, you fellas can correct me if I'm wrong just my observation. But everyone's idea of tall is subjective I guess. The other day I was called tall because I'm a bigger guy with broad shoulders, but I'm only 5'8 and the lady wasn't that shorter than me.