Face recognition and own-ethnicity bias in Black, East/Southeast Asian, Hispanic, and White children.

Abstract

Individuals tend to recognize persons of their own ethnicity better than those of another, a phenomenon known as own-ethnicity bias. One explanation of this bias is the contact hypothesis, that is, face recognition is better for ethnic faces that are seen more often. Own ethnicity bias in children, specifically Hispanic children, has received little attention and this study examined own-ethnicity bias in Black (n 53), East/Southeast Asian (n 54), Hispanic (n 96), and White (n 247) children 5–7, 9–11, 13–16 years of age from southern California. With the majority of individuals in southern California being Hispanic or White, the contact hypothesis predicts that children should recognize own-ethnicity faces better than other-ethnicity faces and other-ethnicity Hispanic and White faces better than Asian or Black faces. Children were shown 32 adult and child, men and women Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White faces. They were then asked to recognize previously seen faces from a set of old and new faces. Own-ethnicity bias was found for Hispanic and White participants. Some support was found for the contact hypothesis, that is, Hispanic and White children recognized Hispanic and White faces better than Black faces, and for White children, better than Asian faces. Contrary to expectations, Hispanic children recognized Asian faces better than Black faces; and, Asian and Black children exhibited no significant bias. An alternative explanation of face recognition biases focused on children’s attitudes toward ethnic groups.