Why do social perceivers use race to infer a target's propensity for criminal behavior? Life history theory proposes that the harshness and unpredictability of one's environment shapes individuals' behavior, with harsh and unpredictable (“desperate”) ecologies inducing “fast” life history strategies (characterized by present-focused behaviors), and resource-sufficient and stable (“hopeful”) ecologies inducing “slow” life history strategies (characterized by future-focused behaviors). People have an implicit understanding of the ways in which ecology shapes behavior, and use cues to ecology to infer a target's likely life history strategy. Additionally, because race is confounded with ecology in the United States, American perceivers use race as a heuristic cue to ecology, stereotyping Black individuals as possessing faster life history strategies than White individuals. Here, I propose that many race stereotypes about criminality actually reflect inferences of life history strategy, and thus track beliefs about the behavioral effects of ecology, rather than race. In a series of three studies, I explored the relations between perceptions of ecology, race, and criminal behavior. Participants in each study (N = 896) were recruited through a U.S. online marketplace. Findings indicate that stereotypes regarding likelihood to engage in specific crimes were largely driven by beliefs about the presumed ecology of the offender, rather than offender's race, such that Black and White targets from desperate (and hopeful) ecologies were stereotyped as similarly likely (or unlikely) to commit a variety of “stereotypically Black” crimes. Taken together, these findings suggest that beliefs about criminality may not be driven by race, per se, but may instead reflect inferences of how one's ecology shapes behavior. Implications of these findings for understanding and reducing racial bias in the criminal justice system are discussed.

为什么社会感知者使用种族来推断目标的犯罪行为倾向？生活史理论提出，一个人所处环境的严酷性和不可预测性塑造了个体的行为，严酷和不可预测的（“绝望的”）生态诱发了“快速”的生活史策略（以当前为中心的行为为特征），资源充足且稳定（ “充满希望”）生态诱导“缓慢”的生活史策略（以未来为中心的行为为特征）。人们对生态塑造行为的方式有着隐含的理解，并使用生态线索来推断目标可能的生活史策略。此外，由于在美国种族与生态相混淆，美国的感知者将种族用作生态学的启发式线索，刻板印象黑人拥有比白人更快的生活史策略。在这里，我提出许多关于犯罪的种族刻板印象实际上反映了生活史策略的推论，因此追踪了对生态而不是种族行为影响的信念。在一系列的三项研究中，我探讨了生态、种族和犯罪行为之间的关系。每项研究的参与者（N  = 896) 是通过美国在线市场招募的。调查结果表明，关于参与特定犯罪的可能性的刻板印象很大程度上是由对罪犯的假定生态的信念驱动的，而不是罪犯的种族，因此来自绝望（和充满希望）生态的黑人和白人目标被刻板印象为同样可能（或不太可能） ) 犯下各种“典型的黑人”罪行。总而言之，这些发现表明，对犯罪的信念本身可能并非由种族驱动，而是可能反映出对一个人的生态如何塑造行为的推论。讨论了这些发现对理解和减少刑事司法系统中种族偏见的影响。