expected information or as an efficient information processing device that directs attention towards new information that may potentially undermine the stereotype and is dependent upon the individuals use of the stereotype. The individual use of the stereotype is also what unfairly moderates the perceived threat of blacks by way of conditioning longstanding stereotypes. Neuronal activity With the increasing strength of a stereotype, cognitively the associations we have attached to that stereotype, such as a higher rated threat perception of blacks, will be analyzed with more ease. Because people are motivated to use as little cognitive resources as possible stereotypes and the connotations attached to them, such as threat perceptions of blacks, last as the most readily available and most easily comprehensible explanation. In a White majority, the perceptual system may be more sensitive to Black faces, and more biased as well. ERPs demonstrate that attention is preferentially directed toward black targets. Participants were more biased/prejudiced against prototypical Black targets than less prototypical Black targets shown through fMRI and being presented with more or less prototypical individuals. Non-prototypical individuals (ex: dark-skinned white males) caused greater amygdala activation (akin to fear response) than did light-skinned white males. The amygdala is associated with fear, threat and emotion processing. Stereotypes and other expectations act as filters that increase the ease with which expectancy-consistent information can be processed. People are motivated to use as little cognitive resources as possible giving the most attention to the easiest comprehensible material (expectancy-consistent information). As stereotype strength increases, so should the ease of processing stereotype-consistent information. Attention will shift from stereotype-consistent information to stereotype-inconsistent information. Unexpected information is processed more extensively because it is more difficult to comprehend while consistent information can be coded as generic examples of the expectancy but inconsistent information must be uniquely coded as new information that is not aligned with expectancy. Environment/context The environment or context through which information is received impacts the threat associated with it. For example, if a man is wearing a hoodie and walking rather fast towards you in the morning, in a rich neighborhood, on a crowded street, while it is raining, threat perception is lower than encountering that same individual after dark, in a poverty-stricken neighborhood with no rain on an empty street. Although this could have no threatening intentions at all, the context in which you encounter that person will dictate the level of threat associated with