The Own-Race Bias for Face Recognition in a Multiracial Society
The own-race bias (ORB) is a reliable phenomenon across cultural and racial groups where unfamiliar faces from other races are usually remembered more poorly than own-race faces (Meissner and Brigham, 2001). By adopting a yes–no recognition paradigm, we found that ORB was pronounced across race grou...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2020-03-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00208/full |
| _version_ | 1818863028847771648 |
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| author | Hoo Keat Wong Ian D. Stephen Ian D. Stephen David R. T. Keeble |
| author_facet | Hoo Keat Wong Ian D. Stephen Ian D. Stephen David R. T. Keeble |
| author_sort | Hoo Keat Wong |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The own-race bias (ORB) is a reliable phenomenon across cultural and racial groups where unfamiliar faces from other races are usually remembered more poorly than own-race faces (Meissner and Brigham, 2001). By adopting a yes–no recognition paradigm, we found that ORB was pronounced across race groups (Malaysian–Malay, Malaysian–Chinese, Malaysian–Indian, and Western–Caucasian) when faces were presented with only internal features (Experiment 1), implying that growing up in a profoundly multiracial society does not necessarily eliminate ORB. Using a procedure identical to Experiment 1, we observed a significantly greater increment in recognition performance for other-race faces than for own-race faces when the external features (e.g. facial contour and hairline) were presented along with the internal features (Experiment 2)—this abolished ORB. Contrary to assumptions based on the contact hypothesis, participants’ self-reported amount of interracial contact on a social contact questionnaire did not significantly predict the magnitude of ORB. Overall, our findings suggest that the level of exposure to other-race faces accounts for only a small part of ORB. In addition, the present results also support the notion that different neural mechanisms may be involved in processing own- and other-race faces, with internal features of own-race faces being processed more effectively, whereas external features dominate representations of other-race faces. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T10:09:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-256eee9e5a7040ae908a1071c726c0dc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T10:09:15Z |
| publishDate | 2020-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-256eee9e5a7040ae908a1071c726c0dc2022-12-21T20:26:25ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782020-03-011110.3389/fpsyg.2020.00208509636The Own-Race Bias for Face Recognition in a Multiracial SocietyHoo Keat Wong0Ian D. Stephen1Ian D. Stephen2David R. T. Keeble3School of Psychology, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Semenyih, MalaysiaDepartment of Psychology, Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, NSW, AustraliaPerception in Action Research Centre, Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, NSW, AustraliaSchool of Psychology, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Semenyih, MalaysiaThe own-race bias (ORB) is a reliable phenomenon across cultural and racial groups where unfamiliar faces from other races are usually remembered more poorly than own-race faces (Meissner and Brigham, 2001). By adopting a yes–no recognition paradigm, we found that ORB was pronounced across race groups (Malaysian–Malay, Malaysian–Chinese, Malaysian–Indian, and Western–Caucasian) when faces were presented with only internal features (Experiment 1), implying that growing up in a profoundly multiracial society does not necessarily eliminate ORB. Using a procedure identical to Experiment 1, we observed a significantly greater increment in recognition performance for other-race faces than for own-race faces when the external features (e.g. facial contour and hairline) were presented along with the internal features (Experiment 2)—this abolished ORB. Contrary to assumptions based on the contact hypothesis, participants’ self-reported amount of interracial contact on a social contact questionnaire did not significantly predict the magnitude of ORB. Overall, our findings suggest that the level of exposure to other-race faces accounts for only a small part of ORB. In addition, the present results also support the notion that different neural mechanisms may be involved in processing own- and other-race faces, with internal features of own-race faces being processed more effectively, whereas external features dominate representations of other-race faces.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00208/fullother-race effectown-race biasmultiracialface recognitioncross-cultural |
| spellingShingle | Hoo Keat Wong Ian D. Stephen Ian D. Stephen David R. T. Keeble The Own-Race Bias for Face Recognition in a Multiracial Society Frontiers in Psychology other-race effect own-race bias multiracial face recognition cross-cultural |
| title | The Own-Race Bias for Face Recognition in a Multiracial Society |
| title_full | The Own-Race Bias for Face Recognition in a Multiracial Society |
| title_fullStr | The Own-Race Bias for Face Recognition in a Multiracial Society |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Own-Race Bias for Face Recognition in a Multiracial Society |
| title_short | The Own-Race Bias for Face Recognition in a Multiracial Society |
| title_sort | own race bias for face recognition in a multiracial society |
| topic | other-race effect own-race bias multiracial face recognition cross-cultural |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00208/full |
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