The other-race effect and holistic processing across racial groups

Hoo Keat Wong,Alejandro J Estudillo,David R T Keeble,Ian D Stephen

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-87933-1

Hoo Keat Wong, Alejandro J Estudillo + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87933-1

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Abstract

It is widely accepted that holistic processing is important for face perception. However, it remains unclear whether the other-race effect (ORE) (i.e. superior recognition for own-race faces) arises from reduced holistic processing of other-race faces. To address this issue, we adopted a cross-cultural design where Malaysian Chinese, African, European Caucasian and Australian Caucasian participants performed four different tasks: (1) yes–no face recognition, (2) composite, (3) whole-part and (4) global–local tasks. Each face task was completed with unfamiliar own- and other-race faces. Results showed a pronounced ORE in the face recognition task. Both composite-face and whole-part effects were found; however, these holistic effects did not appear to be stronger for other-race faces than for own-race faces. In the global–local task, Malaysian Chinese and African participants demonstrated a stronger global processing bias compared to both European- and Australian-Caucasian participants. Importantly, we found little or no cross-task correlation between any of the holistic processing measures and face recognition ability. Overall, our findings cast doubt on the prevailing account that the ORE in face recognition is due to reduced holistic processing in other-race faces. Further studies should adopt an interactionist approach taking into account cultural, motivational, and socio-cognitive factors.

Highlights

It is widely accepted that holistic processing is important for face perception
We investigate whether the other-race effect (ORE) in face memory can be attributed to reduced holistic processing of unfamiliar other-race faces
Given that the pattern of results was similar in the accuracy and response times (RTs) data, in the interest of brevity, we report the response time results in Supplementary Text

Summary

Introduction

It is widely accepted that holistic processing is important for face perception. it remains unclear whether the other-race effect (ORE) (i.e. superior recognition for own-race faces) arises from reduced holistic processing of other-race faces. The discrepancy in the holistic effect results may stem from methodological differences between studies (e.g., face size[15], measuring methods[10,16], limited construct validity of holistic processing[17,18,19], and independent sample collection from race groups who have differential level of interracial experience[9,10,12]). These observations lend support to the claim that the holistic mode of processing faces allows efficient encoding of an individual face[20] and can be moderated by the race of observer[21]. This experience-based explanation of holistic processing has been questioned because other studies have found equivalent levels of holistic processing for both own- and other-race faces in Asian participants with limited exposure to other-race faces[10,12,13,23,24]

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