White Faces Research Articles

Shining a Light on Race: Contrast and Assimilation Effects in the Perception of Skin Tone and Racial Typicality.

Researchers have long debated the extent to which an individual’s skin tone influences their perceived race. Brooks and Gwinn (2010) demonstrated that the race of surrounding faces can affect the perceived skin tone of a central target face without changing perceived racial typicality, suggesting that skin lightness makes a small contribution to judgments of race compared to morphological cues (the configuration and shape of the facial features). However, the lack of a consistent light source may have undermined the reliability of skin tone cues, encouraging observers to rely disproportionately on morphological cues instead. The current study addresses this concern by using 3D models of male faces with typically Black African or White European appearances that are illuminated by the same light source. Observers perceived target faces surrounded by White faces to have darker skin than those surrounded by Black faces, particularly for faces of intermediate lightness. However, when asked to judge racial typicality, a small assimilation effect was evident, with target faces perceived as more stereotypically White when surrounded by White than when surrounded by Black faces at intermediate levels of typicality. This evidence of assimilation effects for perceived racial typicality despite concurrent contrast effects on perceived skin lightness supports the previous conclusion that perceived skin lightness has little influence on judgments of racial typicality for racially ambiguous faces, even when lighting is consistent.

An Analysis of Hurston’s Consistency with Her Original Aspiration and Mission in Seraph on the Suwanee

Seraph on the Suwanee, Zora Neale Hurston’s last published long novel in 1948, depicting a white story, attracted almost no scholarly attention but much criticism for her pandering to white readers, betraying her previous characteristic themes in novel writing and abandoning her black cultural tradition and stance. This thesis aims to dig out the themes of the novel Seraph and the blackness behind the whiteness to find out that Seraph, in fact suffering wrong, tells a story by white faces with black voices, which demonstrates that Hurston continues her cultural stance and never changes her idea of not only employing black culture tradition but also insisting on her themes of writing as her previous novels.

Black is angry, White is scared: Evaluation of pain expressions in White and Black faces

Black is angry, White is scared: Evaluation of pain expressions in White and Black faces

Social attention across borders: A cross-cultural investigation of gaze cueing elicited by same- and other-ethnicity faces.

The gaze-cueing effect is a robust phenomenon which illustrates how attention can be shaped by social factors. In four experiments, the present study explored the interaction between the ethnic membership of the participant and that of the face providing the gaze cue. Firstly, we aimed to further investigate the differential impact of White, Black, and Asian faces on the gaze-cueing effect in White individuals. Secondly, we aimed to explore, for the first time, the impact of faces belonging to different ethnicities on gaze cueing in Chinese participants. The results allowed to rule out alternative accounts and showed that White participants exhibit a gaze-cueing effect for White and Asian faces, but not for Black faces, consistent with previous studies. As regards Chinese participants, the overall findings suggested a stronger gaze-cueing effect for White faces than for Asian faces. The results are discussed with reference to differences in the perceived social status of the various groups, pointing to the need of taking into account different cultural contexts.

Neural dynamics of pain expression processing: Alpha-band synchronization to same-race pain but desynchronization to other-race pain

Both electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have revealed enhanced neural responses to perceived pain in same-race than other-race individuals. However, it remains unclear how neural responses in the sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective subsystems vary dynamically in the first few hundreds of milliseconds to generate racial ingroup favoritism in empathy for pain. We recorded magnetoencephalography signals to pain and neutral expressions of Asian and white faces from Chinese adults during judgments of racial identity of each face. We found that pain compared to neutral expressions of same-race faces induced early increased alpha oscillations in the precuneus/parietal cortices followed by increased alpha-band oscillations in the left anterior insula and temporoparietal junction. Pain compared to neutral expressions of other-race faces, however, induced early suppression of alpha-band oscillations in the bilateral sensorimotor cortices and left insular cortex. Moreover, decreased functional connectivity between the left sensorimotor cortex and left anterior insula predicted reduced subjective feelings of other-race suffering. Our results unraveled distinct patterns of modulations of neural dynamics of sensorimotor, affective, and cognitive components of empathy by interracial relationships between an observer and a target person, which provide possible brain mechanisms for understanding racial ingroup favoritism in social behavior.

A stronger relationship between reward responsivity and trustworthiness evaluations emerges in healthy aging

ABSTRACT Older adults (OA) evaluate faces to be more trustworthy than do younger adults (YA), yet the processes supporting these more positive evaluations are unclear. This study identified neural mechanisms spontaneously engaged during face perception that differentially relate to OA’ and YA’ later trustworthiness evaluations. We examined two mechanisms: salience (reflected by amygdala activation) and reward (reflected by caudate activation) – both of which are implicated in evaluating trustworthiness. We emphasized the salience and reward value of specific faces by having OA and YA evaluate ingroup male White and outgroup Black and Asian faces. Participants perceived faces during fMRI and made trustworthiness evaluations after the scan. OA rated White and Black faces as more trustworthy than YA. OA had a stronger positive relationship between caudate activity and trustworthiness than YA when perceiving ingroup, but not outgroup, faces. Ingroup cues might intensify how trustworthiness is rewarding to OA, potentially reinforcing their overall positivity.

Carrier concentration variety over multisectoral boron-doped HPHT diamond

A set of multisectoral boron-doped diamond plates cut from a 10-ct high pressure high temperature single crystal was thoroughly studied. The plates’ morphologies were examined by atomic-force microscopy, it showed the average roughness of 5–10 nm. For electrical measurements, ohmic and rectifying platinum contacts were deposited by magnetron sputtering. Schottky diodes arrays were investigated by admittance spectroscopy; current-voltage (I–V) and capacitance-voltage (C–V) characteristics were obtained and analysed. Frequency dispersion of C–V characteristics was registered. Blue (111) and white (100) faces of samples showed a drastic difference in I–V and C–V behaviour. Mathematical processing of the obtained data was performed and the depth distributions of apparent charge carriers were obtained for all diodes. The registered concentration for the white sector is in the range (1–3)·1017 cm−3, and for the blue sector it is one order more. Charge carrier distribution over the sample surface was obtained and it showed a fine correlation with sectors’ colour and growth direction with appropriate discussion.

Black and white faces of banana value chain in Sri Lanka: a case study

Black and white faces of banana value chain in Sri Lanka: a case study

Faster and More Accurate Identification of Male Faces in Female Care Home Residents

We investigated whether healthy older adults who live in female-dominated old age care homes can identify the gender of male and female faces of people from different ethnicities in the same way as young adults. We hypothesized that this mainly female environment would lead by exposure to a female-gender bias. A sample of 40 participants aged 20-30 and 70-80 years identified the sex-of-face of 120 images of young and old adults, male and female faces, black and white faces, presented in a randomized sequence in a self-paced computer task. The young group was significantly more accurate and faster than the older group in sex-of-face identification. Men’s faces were identified as male faster than female faces as female by both young and old adults. Men’s faces were also more accurately identified by younger adults, but in care home residents, this was only the case for faces of young white and older black men. Faces of white older women were identified more accurately than those of black older women by the care home residents, especially in the women-only sample when men were excluded from statistical analysis. Because the known masculinity bias in women prevailed beyond the menopause, it is discussed whether rather than fertility hormones, women’s testosterone would be a likely candidate explaining the male advantage in sex-of-face identification throughout the life-span.

Positive intergroup contact modulates fusiform gyrus activity to black and white faces

In this study, we investigated the effect of intergroup contact on processing of own- and other-race faces using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Previous studies have shown a neural own-race effect with greater BOLD response to own race compared to other race faces. In our study, white participants completed a social-categorization task and an individuation task while viewing the faces of both black and white strangers after having answered questions about their previous experiences with black people. We found that positive contact modulated BOLD activity in the right fusiform gyrus (rFG) and left inferior occipital gyrus (lIOC), regions associated with face processing. Within these regions, higher positive contact was associated with higher activity when processing black, compared to white faces during the social categorisation task. We also found that in both regions a greater amount of individuating experience with black people was associated with greater activation for black vs. white faces in the individuation task. Quantity of contact, implicit racial bias and negatively valenced contact showed no effects. Our findings suggest that positive contact and individuating experience directly modulate processing of out-group faces in the visual cortex, and illustrate that contact quality rather than mere familiarity is an important factor in reducing the own race face effect.

What does it mean to be American? Perceptions of national identity amongst adults and children

Across two studies we examined whether conformity (vs. not) to primordial, assimilationist, and civic constructions impacted adults’ and preschoolers’ conceptions of national identity. Adults (N = 151) and preschoolers (N = 42) in the U.S. viewed photos of White faces accompanied by descriptive information, including whether or not the individual was born in the U.S. (i.e., primordial construction), spoke English (i.e., assimilationist construction), and loved the U.S. (i.e., civic construction). Participants rated each target’s “American-ness.” Adults considered targets born in the U.S. as most American, followed by targets loving the U.S. However, interactions with assimilationist constructions qualified these effects. Speaking English bolstered the effects of being born in the U.S. or loving the U.S. Preschool aged children solely drew upon civic constructions of identity, evaluating targets loving the U.S. as more American than targets not loving the U.S. Discussion focuses on the implications of these divergent conceptualizations of national identity.

Black "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" task: The development of a task assessing mentalizing from black faces.

Researchers investigating various facets of theory of mind, sometimes referred to as mentalizing, are increasingly exploring how social group membership influences this process. To facilitate this research, we introduce the Black Reading the Mind in The Eyes task, a freely available 36-item Black RME task with an array of norming data about these stimuli. Stimuli have been created and equated to match the original Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) task which included only White faces. Norming data were collected in three waves that characterized the physical properties of the stimuli and also participants’ subjective ratings of the stimuli. Between each round of ratings, stimuli that did not equate with the original RME task or were not distinctly recognized as Black were removed and new stimuli were incorporated in the next round until we obtained 36 distinctive Black RME targets that matched the 36 mental states used in the original RME stimulus set. Both stimulus sets were similarly difficult and subsequent testing showed that neither Black nor White participants’ mentalizing accuracy varied as a function of target race. We provide instructions for obtaining the database and stimulus ratings.

Individual Differences Correspond with Attention to the Eyes of White Versus Black Faces

Black, relative to White, individuals have experienced discrimination for centuries in the United States. Recent work suggests that subtle differences in how novel Black faces are initially perceived relate to prejudicial behavior. One such difference is that non-Black people attend more to the eyes of White versus Black novel faces. The present study sought to better characterize this difference by assessing how distinct individual differences widely shown to relate to prejudicial behavior—internal motivation to respond without prejudice (IMS), external motivation to respond without prejudice (EMS), and implicit race bias—relate to disparities in attending to the eyes of novel Black and White faces. Participants viewed novel Black and White faces one at a time on the right or left side of the display. Replicating a race-based disparity in visual attention to the eyes, non-Black perceivers fixated more on the eyes of White in comparison to Black faces. Individual differences among perceivers corresponded with the extent of this race-based disparity. IMS had a negative relationship with a race-based disparity in attention to the eyes, such that higher levels of IMS among perceivers corresponded with lower disparities in attention. Implicit race bias had a positive relationship with this disparity, such that higher levels of implicit race bias among perceivers corresponded with higher disparities in attention. Together, these findings illustrate that two individual differences known to affect prejudicial behavior are associated with preferential gaze patterns in visual attention toward faces on the basis of race.

Culture Impacts the Neural Response to Perceiving Outgroups Among Black and White Faces.

Outgroup members (e.g., individuals whose racial identity differs from perceivers’) are stigmatized in Eastern and Western cultures. However, it remains an open question how specific cultural influences affect stigmatization. In this study, we assessed whether cultural learning (i.e., social information acquired from the people in one’s environment) associated with Chinese individuals’ relocation to the United States differentiated the response to multiple outgroups. Two types of cultural learning predict diverging responses to outgroups – awareness of stereotypes about different racial outgroups is associated with increased negative affect and cognitive control toward the stereotyped outgroup. Conversely, intergroup contact attenuates those responses, and does so to a greater extent for individuals from Western cultures. As Chinese–Americans would have had more opportunities to have contact with both White and Black individuals (relative to the Chinese participants), we explored their responses to outgroups as well. Because the neural regions associated with stereotyping and intergroup contact have been well-characterized, we used neuroimaging to disentangle these possibilities. Eighteen White American, 18 Chinese–American, and 17 Chinese participants – who had relocated to the United States less than 1 year prior – viewed images of Black and White individuals while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants also completed measures of awareness of cultural stereotypes in the United States about Black and White individuals, implicit bias, and experiences with White and Black individuals. Behaviorally, White American and Chinese–American participants had more intergroup contact with either race than did Chinese participants, but there was no effect of participant group on stereotype knowledge or implicit bias. When viewing faces of White (as compared to Black) individuals while undergoing fMRI, White American (relative to Chinese) participants had attenuated activation in regions of the brain associated with cognitive control, including the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsal striatum, and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Chinese–Americans’ neural response to either race did not differ from White American or Chinese participants. Taken together, outgroup biases seemed to emerge in a culturally-dependent way based on variability in intergroup contact, but not necessarily awareness of stereotypes.

Perceptual contributions to racial bias in pain recognition.

The pain of Black Americans is systematically underdiagnosed and undertreated, compared to the pain of their White counterparts. Extensive research has examined the psychological factors that might account for such biases, including status judgments, racial prejudice, and stereotypes about biological differences between Blacks and Whites. Across seven experiments, we accumulated evidence that lower-level perceptual processes also uniquely contribute to downstream racial biases in pain recognition. We repeatedly observed that White participants showed more stringent thresholds for perceiving pain on Black faces, compared to White faces. A tendency to see painful expressions on Black faces less readily arose, in part, from a disruption in configural processing associated with other-race faces. Subsequent analyses revealed that this racial bias in pain perception could not be easily attributed to stimulus features (e.g., color, luminance, or contrast), subjective evaluations related to pain tolerance and experience (e.g., masculinity, dominance, etc.), or objective differences in face structure and expression intensity between Black and White faces. Finally, we observed that racial biases in perception facilitated biases in pain treatment decisions, and that this relationship existed over and above biased judgments of status and strength, explicit racial bias, and endorsement of false beliefs regarding biological differences. A meta-analysis across 9 total experiments (N = 1,289) confirmed the robustness and size of these effects. This research establishes a subtle, albeit influential, perceptual pathway to intergroup bias in pain care and treatment. Implications for racial bias, face perception, and medical treatment are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Assessment of the Influence of "Other-Race Effect" on Visual Attention and Perception of Attractiveness Before and After Rhinoplasty.

The "other-race effect" describes the phenomenon in which individuals demonstrate greatest recognition ability among faces of their own race. Thus, in our multicultural world, it follows that race influences social interactions. However, the association of race with perception of plastic surgery outcomes has not been studied. To objectively measure how the other-race effect influences perception of white and Latin American patients undergoing rhinoplasty by using eye-tracking technology and survey methodology. In the first part of the study, 134 participants viewed 32 paired facial images of white and Latin American patients, either prerhinoplasty or postrhinoplasty, on an eye-tracking system that recorded observer scan paths. In the second part of this study, the same patient images were individually graded by a separate group of 134 participants for degree of racial identification and perceived attractiveness. The primary outcome was to measure the influence of patient and observer race on perception of rhinoplasty outcomes. For the eye-tracking part, planned hypothesis testing was conducted using an analysis of variance to compare patient race, rhinoplasty status, and attractiveness with respect to visual fixation time. Of the 134 eye-tracking participants, 68 (51%) were women and the mean (SD) age was 26.4 (7.7) years; of the 134 graders, 64 (48%) were women and the mean (SD) age was 25.0 (6.9) years. Rhinoplasty did not affect racial identity scores among either same-race or other-race evaluators. Visual fixation times for white faces were significantly increased compared with Latin American faces among all casual observer groups (white observers mean change, -20.14 milliseconds; 95% CI, -29.65 to -10.62 milliseconds; P < .001; Asian observers mean change, -39.04 milliseconds; 95% CI, -48.95 to -29.15 milliseconds; P < .001; and African American observers mean change, -20.73 milliseconds; 95% CI, -37.78 to -3.69 milliseconds; P < .02), with the exception of Latin American observers (mean change, -7.8 milliseconds; 95% CI, -29.15 to 14.39 milliseconds; P < .51). With respect to attractiveness, white graders reported a significant postrhinoplasty increase across both races (white patients mean change, 8.07 points; 95% CI, 5.01-11.12 points; P < .001; and Latin American patients mean change, 3.69 points; 95% CI, 0.87-6.49 points; P = .01), whereas Latin American graders only observed a significant attractiveness increase in their own race (Latin American patients mean change, 10.50 points; 95% CI, 1.70-19.32 points; P = .02). Neither perceived attractiveness nor rhinoplasty status influenced fixation times. Both patient and observer race influence visual attention and perception of attractiveness before and after rhinoplasty. These findings underscore the importance of counseling patients that the influence of rhinoplasty, as perceived by the casual observer, may vary by race or ethnicity of the observer group. NA.

Attention and Working Memory Biases to Black and Asian Faces During Intergroup Contexts.

Categorizing and individual as a racial ingroup or outgroup member results in processing and memory differences. However, despite processing differences for racial ingroups and outgroups, very little is known about processing of racial ingroup and outgroup members during intergroup contexts. Thus, the present research investigated attention and memory differences for racial ingroup and outgroup members during competition for attention (i.e., intergroup contexts). In experiment 1, event-related potentials (ERPs) were obtained while participants completed a working memory task that presented 4 faces (2 Black, 2 White) at once then, following a short delay, were probed to indicate the spatial location of one of the faces. Participants showed better location memory for Black than White faces. During encoding, ERP results revealed differences based on the race of the face in P300 amplitudes, such that there was greater motivated processing when attending to Black faces. At probe, the N170 indicated enhanced early processing of Black faces and greater LPCs were associated with better recollection of Black face location. In a follow-up study using the same task, we examined attention and working memory biases for Asian and White faces in Caucasian and Asian participants. Results for both Caucasian and Asian participants indicated better working memory for Asian relative to White faces. Together, results indicate that during intergroup contexts, racial minority faces capture attention, resulting in better memory for those faces. The study underscores that examining racial biases with single stimuli paradigms obscures important aspects of attention and memory biases during intergroup contexts.

A data-driven study of Chinese participants' social judgments of Chinese faces.

Social judgments of faces made by Western participants are thought to be underpinned by two dimensions: valence and dominance. Because some research suggests that Western and Eastern participants process faces differently, the two-dimensional model of face evaluation may not necessarily apply to judgments of faces by Eastern participants. Here we used a data-driven approach to investigate the components underlying social judgments of Chinese faces by Chinese participants. Analyses showed that social judgments of Chinese faces by Chinese participants are partly underpinned by a general approachability dimension similar to the valence dimension previously found to underpin Western participants’ evaluations of White faces. However, we found that a general capability dimension, rather than a dominance dimension, contributed to Chinese participants’ evaluations of Chinese faces. Thus, our findings present evidence for both cultural similarities and cultural differences in social evaluations of faces. Importantly, the dimension that explained most of the variance in Chinese participants’ social judgments of faces was strikingly similar to the valence dimension previously reported for Western participants.

Our Wayward Fate by Gloria Chao

Reviewed by: Our Wayward Fate by Gloria Chao Deborah Stevenson, Editor Chao, Gloria Our Wayward Fate. Simon Pulse, 2019 [320p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-5344-2761-7 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-5344-2763-1 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 9-12 Adrift in a sea of white faces in small-town Indiana, seventeen-year-old Ali Chu is at first insulted that everybody thinks she should get together with new boy Chase Yu. It turns out, though, that Chase is a hottie with enticingly rebellious tendencies, who gives voice to Ali's resentment of the racism she's steeped in. However, even a nice Taiwanese boy like Chase isn't enough for Ali's strict mother's approval, and Ali's shipped off for a trip to China as a consequence for pushing back; there she [End Page 112] learns information about her family that shocks her. Chao (American Panda, BCCB 2/18) believably conveys Ali's isolation, her dysfunctional family (her mother has never forgiven her father for failing to receive tenure), and her eroding compliance; her romance with Chase is absolutely the flirty rom-com she claims to despise and that readers will enjoy as much as she does. However, the writing is sometimes strained and exposition is awkwardly interpolated; characterization wavers under the pressure of plot demands, and the family practice of secrecy is more interesting than the secrets eventually revealed. It's still a heartfelt tale of filial hurt and resistance, though, to which many young readers will relate. Copyright © 2019 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Ladan OsmanExiles of Eden

a comparison with how East and West Germany gradually initiated the Vergangenheitsaufarbeitung regarding the Third Reich and its genocide against many ethnicities and groups in Europe, the Jewish people first among them. Evil has been a lasting concern for Neiman; in Evil in Modern Thought (2002), she reinstated the philosophical question of evil to primacy of status. Monuments, Neiman suggests, obscure the contingency of history: once put up, they appear to have been around forever. For this reason, Germany holds a deceptively iconic status for its historical sensitivity and honesty, and Neiman severely criticizes West Germany in particular for decades of denying the reality of its situation. Monuments also serve as an assertion of power and morality. The profound problem Neiman addresses, then, is the psychological difficulty of reconciling defeat with guilt— particularly through the nebulous experience of living under occupation. While for a white southerner the removal of Confederate statues might imply a Lost Cause narrative of northern aggression, for a black southerner their persistence can suggest that men who “fought for the right to own other human beings” are honored—yet Neiman makes clear that in this case only the black experience is universal. In this, Neiman takes on the difficult aesthetics and curation of historical representation. A German who hails from a Nazi family can redeem herself to an extent, for instance by writing a candid book—as a white southerner could about their family ’s involvement in lynchings—but only at the expense of the name and reputation of those family members who did not write such a book. As often as Neiman’s interviewees speak eloquently on behalf of the persecuted, they are shining examples of historical awareness on the side of the perpetrators. The worry that this could give rise to is that Neiman risks the conditions of discernment around historical culpability and redemption on the very experiences that open these up for her: does historical awareness make women pretty and charming, men handsome and tall, and even their houses tasteful—as they are presented here? Is confession adequate to the exemption or redemption of collective responsibility? Neiman, however, turns this aesthetic pitfall to her own advantage by laying bare her own prejudices and learning from them, as when she witnesses a group of high school students reenact the trial against Emmett Till’s murderers. Not up to Neiman’s standards, at first, until she grasps that the refinement of the performance is not the issue. Ultimately, Neiman thinks in strategic, not therapeutic, terms. The voices from which Neiman learns the most recommend making reparations and smashing fascism —the interview with James Meredith is a standout moment. This means that there may not be a cure for fascism, but the defense of society obligates us to question the history and morality of our cities, universities , museums, and monuments. Arthur Willemse University of Maastricht Emiliano Monge Among the Lost Trans. Frank Wynne. Melbourne. Scribe. 2019. 345 pages. In a note at the beginning of Among the Lost, Emiliano Monge thanks the human rights organizations that provided him with inspiration . Throughout the novel, the Mexican writer quotes from the real-life testimony of Central American migrants who encountered numerous hardships on their northward journeys. We learn about the cruelty they’ve endured and their fears that they Books in Review Ladan Osman Exiles of Eden Minneapolis. Coffee House Press. 2019. 77 pages. Who is allowed to call themself an American? When a crowd of thousands of white faces shout for an approving President Trump to “Send her back!” in reference to Representative Ilhan Omar, a black Muslim woman, a former refugee , an American, it is a racist threat that lays bare the critical question of our current moment. As Representative Omar defends herself on the political stage, another Somali American, poet Ladan Osman, uses her new poetry collection, Exiles of Eden, to conduct an emotional autopsy of the loss of home and the destructive force of America’s racism. In poems that move easily from the formal to experimental, Osman’s bold new work journeys through worlds that shift unpredictably from intimacy into violence, worlds forever lost to her and, finally, to the world the poet...