Black males are perceived as being better-dressed and having better fashion sense than their Caucasian counterparts by individuals of all races and genders, a new study from Virginia's Hampton University has claimed.
Using an Implicit Association Test (IAT) in which researchers showed test subjects images of black and white males in various different clothing styles and asked the subjects to associate them with words such as "fashionable", "smart", "awkward" and "dishevilled", the research team determined which groups are most likely to be considered well-dressed on average.
The association with black men and a more "suave" habit was strongest among white women, followed closely by Black women, then by Black men, Asian women and finally men of all other races. White males showed the weakest association of black men with style, followed closely by Asian and Pacific Islander men. All groups nevertheless implicitly associated Black men with being better-dressed to some degree. The research team has urged that these biases should not be taken as any sort of affirmative racial statement, nor should it be disregarded that individuals may have their own personal preferences, and that the causes of this difference in the perception of Black and white males is unknown. It comes after a recent Harvard study was released in which respondents perceived black men as being considerably more masculine, competent and easy-going than their white counterparts.
