Recognizing faces across continents: The effect of within-race variations on the own-race bias in face recognition

• Published in: Psychonomic bulletin & review Vol. 15; no. 6; pp. 1089 - 1092
• Main Authors: Chiroro, Patrick M., Tredoux, Colin G., Radaelli, Stephano, Meissner, Christian A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer New York 01-12-2008; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Advantages; African Continental Ancestry Group - psychology; Attention; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Brief Reports; Cognitive Psychology; European Continental Ancestry Group - psychology; Face; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Learning. Memory; Memory; Minority & ethnic groups; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Race; Reaction Time; South Africa; Studies; South Africa; Contact Hypothesis; Perceptual Experience; Social Psychology Bulletin; Intergroup Contact; Face Recognition; Human; Physical appearance; Memory; Race; Cognition; Experimental study; Face; Intergroup relation; Ethnic group; Recognition
• ISSN: 1069-9384; 1531-5320
• DOI: 10.3758/PBR.15.6.1089

People are better at recognizing faces of their own race than faces of other racial groups. This own-race bias (ORB) in face recognition manifests in some studies as a full crossover interaction between race of observer and race of face, but in others the interaction is accompanied by main effects or other complexities. We hypothesized that this may be due in part to unacknowledged within-race variation and the implicit assumption that the terms white and black describe perceptually homogeneous race categories. We therefore tested white and black South Africans on their recognition of black and white American faces and black and white South African faces. Our results showed the expected interaction, but only for South African faces. This finding supports explanations of the ORB that are premised on intergroup contact and perceptual experience and highlights the danger of assuming homogeneity of appearance within groups. Author Note