Face Race Research Articles

The Effect of Own-Race Bias (ORB) on Face Recognition

The term "own-race bias" (ORB) describes the situation in which people are more adept at identifying the faces of members of their own race than those of other races. The impact of racial disparities on face recognition accuracy and speed is investigated in this study. Empirical studies have demonstrated the involvement of variables including affect and mental abilities in ORB. While split attention tends to enhance ORB, positive emotions can decrease it. Positive emotional states may also boost cognitive flexibility, which would improve the ability to recognise faces of different races. Research looking at racial disparities in facial features also show quantifiable differences across racial groups. While some studies employ deep learning algorithms to categorise race using face traits, others use anthropometric measurements to identify these differences. Notwithstanding these discoveries, additional research employing more varied samples and longer study durations is necessary due to limitations including biassed data and a disregard for the environment.

Toward characterization of perceptual specialization for faces in Multiracial contexts.

This conceptual analysis focuses on opportunities to advance research and current hypotheses of perceptual development by examining what is presently known and unknown about perceptual specialization in a Multiracial context during the first year of life. The impact of being raised in a Multiracial family or community is discussed to further characterize the development of perceptual expertise for faces and languages. Historical and present-day challenges faced by researchers in defining what race is, identifying Multiracial individuals or contexts, and how to study perceptual and cognitive processes in this population are discussed. We propose to leverage current data from developmental Multilingual populations as a guide for future research questions and hypotheses characterizing perceptual specialization based on face race for Multiracial/Multiethnic individuals and contexts. Variability of input and the pattern of specialization are two factors identified from the developmental Multilingual literature that are likely useful for studying Multiracial contexts and development. Several methodological considerations are proposed in hopes of facilitating research questions and practices that are reflective of and informed by the diversity of experiences and social complexities within Multiracial populations.

The effect of face race on metamemory: Examining its robustness and underlying mechanisms.

Perceivers typically exhibit better recognition memory for same-race faces than for cross-race faces, a phenomenon known as the cross-race effect (CRE). Despite its ubiquity, it is yet unclear whether people are metacognitively aware of the CRE. This research thoroughly investigates perceivers' metacognitive awareness of the CRE across five experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that both prospective (judgments of learning) and retrospective (confidence) metamemory judgments are sensitive to variations in the racial category and prototypicality of faces. Experiment 3 showed that participants' item-level prospective judgments are informed by beliefs about the impact of face race on memory performance. Experiment 4 revealed that global predictions are influenced by face race in the absence of direct stimulus experience, emphasizing the role of preexisting beliefs. Experiment 5 extended these findings by showing large crossover interactions between face race and participant race in both global predictions and item-level prospective judgments, indicating that both White and Black participants have higher metamemory estimates for ingroup faces. This experiment further showed that preexisting beliefs intensify the impact of face race on metamemory judgments yet do not fully account for it. Collectively, these experiments provide robust evidence of good metamemory accuracy for faces varying in racial categories and prototypicality among White participants and demonstrate that beliefs underlie the effect of face race on metamemory judgments among both White and Black participants, though this may not be the only mechanism involved. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Infants' visual attention to own-race and other-race faces is moderated by experience with people of different races in their daily lives.

Infants sometimes differentially attend to faces of different races, but how this tendency develops across infancy and how it may vary for infants growing up with different exposure to racial diversity remain unclear. The present study examined the role of experiences with racial diversity on infants' visual attention to different racial groups (specifically own-race vs. other-race groups) in the first year of life via a large-scale study of infants (N = 203; Mage = 6.9 months, range = 3-14 months; 70% White, 8% Asian, 5% Black, 12% multiracial, 4% unreported; 14% Hispanic, 86% non-Hispanic) from across the United States. We tested the role of two forms of racial diversity: that of infants' social networks (reported by parents) and that of infants' neighborhoods (obtained from U.S. Census data). Regardless of age, infants looked longer at other-race faces than own-race faces, but this tendency was moderated by the racial diversity of infants' social networks. Infants with more diverse networks looked equivalently long at own-race and other-race faces, whereas those with less diverse networks looked longer at other-race faces. In contrast, infants' looking behavior was not moderated by the diversity of their neighborhoods. Together, our research suggests that exposure to racial diversity in infants' immediate social networks predicts how infants look to faces of different races, illustrating the context-dependent nature of the development of infants' attention to race. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Different features for different races: Tracking the eyes of Asian, Black, and White participants viewing Asian, Black, and White Faces.

The own-race bias (ORB) is an effect in which humans remember faces from their own race better than faces from another race. Where people look when processing faces of different races plays a role in this effect, but the exact relationship between looking and the ORB is debated. One perspective is that the same facial features are important for memory for faces of all races and the ORB emerges when people look longer at the useful features for own- than other-race faces. Another perspective is that different facial features are useful for faces of different races and the ORB emerges when people look longer at features that are useful for their own race than at features that are useful for other-race faces. The present study aimed to discriminate these perspectives by examining looking patterns in Asian, Black, and White participants while they learned and later recognized Asian, Black, and White faces. Regardless of their race, participants looked at different facial features depending on the race of the face. In addition, different features were useful for memory depending on the race of the face. As such, results are in line with the perspective that different facial features are useful for different race faces.

Face race modulates neural inhibitory efficiency

Face race modulates neural inhibitory efficiency

Supplemental Material for The Effect of Face Race on Metamemory: Examining Its Robustness and Underlying Mechanisms

Supplemental Material for The Effect of Face Race on Metamemory: Examining Its Robustness and Underlying Mechanisms

Racial salience modulated the face race lightness illusion: A comparative study of Caucasians and Asians.

Previous research has demonstrated the existence of the face race lightness (FRL) illusion. It indicates that Black faces tend to appear darker than White faces, even when their luminance values are objectively adjusted to be the same. However, the debate over the exclusive influence of face-race categories on the FRL illusion continues, with the impact of racial groups on the illusion remaining relatively unexplored. To address these gaps, we conducted studies to investigate whether the FRL illusion varies in terms of racial salience and racial groups. We manipulated the racial salience by altering the orientation of the faces. A total of 64 Caucasians (Study 1) and 63 Asians (Study 2) were recruited. Participants were shown pairs of faces in rapid succession and were asked to report which face appeared lighter or darker. In each trial, the two faces belonged to the same race category: Black, Black-White ambiguous, or White. The luminance of the first face remained consistent across trials while the luminance of the second face varied and was adjusted across eight levels (- 20, - 12, - 8, - 4, + 4, + 8, + 12, + 20). Our findings reveal that the FRL illusion is largely dependent on the salience of face-race information. When faces were presented upright, the FRL illusion was prominent; however, it disappeared when faces were inverted. Remarkably, the FRL illusion was observed not only in Caucasians but also in Asians. Therefore, our results suggest that the FRL illusion primarily stems from race salience rather than participants' racial groups.

Social identity threat attenuates own-race bias in face recognition under the “Asian-Caucasian” context

People typically remember faces of their own race better than the faces of other races, which is known as the own-race bias. Social-cognitive theories on the own-race bias debate if motivation plays a role in racial face recognition under the “Asian-Caucasian” context. We investigated the effect of social-identity-threat based motivation on own-race bias. In Experiment 1, Chinese participants were primed with a negative image of own-race by associating Chinese (i.e., own-race) faces with negative personality traits. Results showed that such social identity threat marginally affect the own-race bias in face recognition sensitivity (Experiment 1a), and it did not influence participants' implicit positive attitudes toward their ethnicity (Experiment 1b). In Experiments 2, 3 and 4, the social identity threat was manipulated by reading an article before the face recognition task. Experiment 2 found that the social identity threat significantly affected the own-race bias in face recognition false alarm. Although we did not find the modulation effect of group on ORB with ANOVA in Experiments 3 and 4, we observed the significant indirect effect of group on ORB through the mediator of generalized threat. Together, the current study provides evidence of social motivation in the own-race bias in the “Asian-Caucasian” setting.

Impact of language familiarity on abstract pattern recognition in 9- to 12-month-old infants

Previous studies found an impact of language familiarity on face recognition in 9- and 12-month-olds. Own race faces are better recognized when associated with native language, whereas for other race faces, it is with non-native language. The aim of this study is to investigate if language familiarity can also influence abstract pattern recognition. We tested 9- to 12-month-old monolingual infants with a visual paired-comparison task. During a 30-s familiarization phase, infants were shown an image of abstract patterns associated with an auditory soundtrack of a speaker reciting a story either in their native (French) or in a non-native language (German). After the familiarization, the familiar and a new abstract pattern were displayed side by side for the recognition test. We found a significant preference for the novel object in the native language condition but not in the non-native condition. These results suggest that language familiarity effects on infant memory are not specific to faces but also influence, on a larger scale, how infants process their immediate visual environment.

Hitler: Rewriting a historical figure in Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt's La Part de l'autre

The aim of this study is to stylise a historical figure that has become universal: Hitler. Schmitt works as a novelist, drawing on a known referentiality to trace the causes of the Führer's actions, albeit subjectively. Through fiction, he shines a harsh light on the character's psychology, the better to de-heroise him and, by means of a "reductio ad hitlerum", reflect back to him the opprobrium he has cast in the face of the entire human race. Using a variety of techniques, the author sets out to deconstruct Hitler and tell a plausible story. Keywords: Stylisation, referentiality, deconstruction, de-heroisation, reductio ad hitlerum

The Influence of the Other-Race Effect on Susceptibility to Face Morphing Attacks.

Facial morphs created between two identities resemble both of the faces used to create the morph. Consequently, humans and machines are prone to mistake morphs made from two identities for either of the faces used to create the morph. This vulnerability has been exploited in "morph attacks" in security scenarios. Here, we asked whether the "other-race effect" (ORE)-the human advantage for identifying own- vs. other-race faces-exacerbates morph attack susceptibility for humans. We also asked whether face-identification performance in a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) is affected by the race of morphed faces. Caucasian (CA) and East-Asian (EA) participants performed a face-identity matching task on pairs of CA and EA face images in two conditions. In the morph condition, different-identity pairs consisted of an image of identity "A" and a 50/50 morph between images of identity "A" and "B". In the baseline condition, morphs of different identities never appeared. As expected, morphs were identified mistakenly more often than original face images. Of primary interest, morph identification was substantially worse for cross-race faces than for own-race faces. Similar to humans, the DCNN performed more accurately for original face images than for morphed image pairs. Notably, the deep network proved substantially more accurate than humans in both cases. The results point to the possibility that DCNNs might be useful for improving face identification accuracy when morphed faces are presented. They also indicate the significance of the race of a face in morph attack susceptibility in applied settings.

Older infants' social learning behavior under uncertainty is modulated by the interaction of face and speech processing.

The origin of face or language influences infants' perceptual processing and social learning behavior. However, it remains unclear how infants' social learning behavior is affected when both information are provided simultaneously. Hence, the current study investigated whether and how infants' social learning in terms of gaze following is influenced by face race and language origin of an interaction partner in an uncertain situation. Our sample consisted of 91 Caucasian infants from German speaking families. They were divided into 2 age groups: Younger infants were 5- to 8-month-old (n=46) and the older infants 11- to 20-month-old (n=45). We used a modified online version of the gaze following paradigm by Xiao and colleagues by varying face race (Caucasian, and Asian faces) and language (German and French) of a female actor. We recorded infants looking behavior via webcam and coded it offline. Our results revealed that older but not younger infants were biased to follow the gaze of own-race adults speaking their native language. Our findings show that older infants are clearly influenced by adults' ethnicity and language in social learning situations of uncertainty.

Differential impacts of face masks for threat evaluations of Asian versus Black faces

Wearing face masks to prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19 has the potential to impact social perception. In the present research, we explore differential consequences of wearing face masks for evaluations of Asian and Black faces. Drawing on theories of prejudice and differing stereotype content for Asian and Black people in the United States, we hypothesized that being depicted wearing a face mask would mitigate evaluations of threat more for Asian faces than for Black faces. Results of a 2 (mask status: face mask vs. no mask) × 3 (face race: Asian vs. Black vs. White) within-subjects design ( n = 365) generally supported hypotheses. Additional analyses using normed ratings of face stimuli from the Chicago Face Database showed that Asian faces showed the greatest increase in threat evaluations compared to norming data. These results highlight the unique impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related preventative health behavior on prejudice towards members of different racial groups.

Face motion form at learning influences the time course of face spatial frequency processing during test

Studies that use static faces suggest that facial processing follows a coarse-to-fine sequence; i.e., holistic precedes featural processing, due to low and high spatial frequencies (LSF, HSF) transmitting holistic/global and featural/local information respectively. Although recent studies have focused on the role of facial movement in holistic facial processing, it is unclear whether moving faces have the same processing mechanism as static ones, especially in the time course of processing. The current study uses the event-related potential technique to investigate this issue by manipulating the facial format at study and face spatial frequency during the test. ERP results showed that the P1 amplitude was increased by LSF faces relative to HSF ones, using both moving and static study faces, with the former larger than the latter. The N170 amplitude was more sensitive to HSF than LSF faces when only static study faces were used, while the P2 amplitude was more sensitive to LSF faces regardless of the facial study format. The above results were not modulated by the race of the faces. These results favor the view that regardless of face race, moving study faces promote holistic processing during the earliest stage of face recognition. Furthermore, holistic processing is observed to be the same for both static and moving study faces at a later stage associated with more in-depth processing. It is evident that facial motion should be factored into further studies of face recognition, given the distinctions between holistic and featural processing for moving and static study faces.

Effect of race on Gaze Cueing in adults with high and low autistic traits

BackgroundObserving the direction of gaze of another person leads to shifting of attention in the same direction (gaze-cueing effect – GCE), a social-cognitive ability known as joint or social attention. Racial attitudes can influence the magnitude of GCE since it has been shown that White people showing a strong race ingroup preference follow the gaze only of White, and not Black, faces. Individuals with high autistic traits have difficulties in social-cognitive abilities that can disrupt the learning of socially shared racial attitudes. Our aim was to investigate in White Italian adults whether individuals with higher autistic traits (measured by the Autism Spectrum Quotient) show reduced implicit racial bias (measured by the Implicit Association Test) and if this bias would lead to differences in the gaze cueing effect (GCE) triggered by gaze direction of faces of different races (measured by the Gaze Cueing Task).MethodsIn an online study, participants (N = 165; 132 females; Mean age = 22.9; SD = 4.76) filled in the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) questionnaire, then performed a Gaze Cueing Task, followed and by an Implicit Association Test.ResultsLinear regression and linear mixed model analyses showed in the IAT task the presence of the same implicit ingroup bias for all participants, which was not predicted by the AQ score, while in the Gaze Cueing Task the GCE differed depending on the AQ score of the participants. Specifically, participants with low-medium, medium, and medium–high autistic traits (AQ = -1SD; AQ = mean; AQ = + 1SD respectively) presented the GCE for both ingroup and outgroup cueing faces, whereas participants with high autistic traits (AQ = + 2SD) only for ingroup faces.ConclusionsIn White Italian adults the presence of an implicit ingroup bias seems to influence the GCE, but it is not always true that the individuals showing an implicit ingroup bias do not orient their attention in the direction of gaze of the outgroup individuals. Instead, the GCE seems to be modulated by the level of autistic traits. That is, individuals with higher autistic traits seem to prioritize joint attention with only their ingroup members.

Early neural dehumanization of other race faces

Early neural dehumanization of other race faces

Fine-grained face race processing in prosopagnosia

Fine-grained face race processing in prosopagnosia

Configural and featural face processing influence the attentional capture of face race: Evidence from N2pc

Configural and featural face processing influence the attentional capture of face race: Evidence from N2pc

Investigating the other race effect: Human and computer face matching and similarity judgements

ABSTRACT The other race effect (ORE) in part describes how people are poorer at identifying faces of other races compared to own-race faces. While well-established with face memory, more recent studies have begun to demonstrate its presence in face matching tasks, with minimal memory requirements. However, several of these studies failed to compare both races of faces and participants in order to fully test the predictions of the ORE. Here, we utilized images of both Black and White individuals, and Black and White participants, as well as tasks measuring perceptions of face matching and similarity. In addition, human judgements were directly compared with computer algorithms. First, we found only partial support for an ORE in face matching. Second, a deep convolutional neural network (residual network with 29 layers) performed exceptionally well with both races. The DCNN’s representations were strongly associated with human perceptions. Taken together, we found that the ORE was not robust or compelling in our human data, and was absent in the computer algorithms we tested. We discuss our results in the context of ORE literature, and the importance of state-of-the-art algorithms.