Real or Artificial? Intergroup Biases in Mind Perception in a Cross-Cultural Perspective.

Eva G Krumhuber,Aleksandra Swiderska,Arvid Kappas,Shanmukh V Kamble,Elena Tsankova,Ulrich Von Hecker

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0137840

Eva G Krumhuber, Aleksandra Swiderska + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137840

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Abstract

Recent research suggests that attributions of aliveness and mental capacities to faces are influenced by social group membership. In this article, we investigated group related biases in mind perception in participants from a Western and Eastern culture, employing faces of varying ethnic groups. In Experiment 1, Caucasian faces that ranged on a continuum from real to artificial were evaluated by participants in the UK (in-group) and in India (out-group) on animacy, abilities to plan and to feel pain, and having a mind. Human features were found to be assigned to a greater extent to faces when these belonged to in-group members, whereas out-group faces had to appear more realistic in order to be perceived as human. When participants in India evaluated South Asian (in-group) and Caucasian (out-group) faces in Experiment 2, the results closely mirrored those of the first experiment. For both studies, ratings of out-group faces were significantly predicted by participants’ levels of ethnocultural empathy. The findings highlight the role of intergroup processes (i.e., in-group favoritism, out-group dehumanization) in the perception of human and mental qualities and point to ethnocultural empathy as an important factor in responses to out-groups.

Highlights

One of the most fundamental interpersonal goals is to establish and maintain a meaningful connection with fellow humans
Participants in India evaluated the faces towards the artificial endpoint of the morphs’ continua higher on these traits than participants in the UK. These results suggest that participants in the UK, who viewed the in-group faces and judged them to be more human-like than participants in India, favored the in-group in the attribution of Theory of Mind (ToM) qualities
In order to demonstrate that the effect of ethnocultural empathy was specific to Indian participants viewing Caucasian faces, we submitted participants’ log-transformed Point of Subjective Equality (PSE) scores of animacy to a Target Ethnicity (1 = Caucasian target, -1 = South Asian target) × Ethnocultural Empathy multiple regression analysis

Summary

Introduction

One of the most fundamental interpersonal goals is to establish and maintain a meaningful connection with fellow humans. With recent advances in computer technology, an increasing attention is being devoted to how people perceive non-living entities, for example virtual agents, avatars, and robots [6,7] Their visual appearance acts as an important cue to social perception and has an impact on the assumption of capabilities (e.g., [8,9]). The point across the morphs’ continua at which faces were likely to be perceived as animate or inanimate—the point of subjective equality (PSE)—was found to be shifted towards the human endpoint This suggested that attributions of animacy do not translate 1:1 onto the actual percentage of the humanness of a face, but instead are shaped by additional mechanisms involved in the perception of mind. The question arises to what extent the above effects generalize to other targets and perceivers

Aims of Present Research

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General Discussion