Same-race faces are perceived more holistically than other-race faces

Abstract

People are better at recognizing same-than faces but the theoretical explanation of this phenomenon is still controversial. Here we tested the hypothesis that the other-race effect'' is related to a reduced ability to encode configural information on faces. Caucasian and Asian participants had to match whole faces to isolated facial features, or onto whole faces differing by a single feature, on both Caucasian and Asian faces. Participants performed better with whole faces as compared to isolated features, demonstrating a processing'' of faces (Tanaka & Farah, 1993). For Caucasian participants, this was observed only for Caucasian faces. Asian participants who had been living for about a year among Caucasians had a comparable whole/part advantage regardless the race of the faces. These results indicate that same-race faces are processed more holistically than faces, as a result of experience. However, despite processing Caucasian faces as holistically as Asian faces in this paradigm, Asian subjects still presented a large effect. This observation suggests that holistic encoding may be a necessary step in order to be able to recognize faces efficiently, but that it is by no means sufficient to overcome the face effect.