'They all look alike to me': prejudice and cross-race face recognition.
We investigated whether prejudice level influences the size of the other-race effect (poorer recognition of other-race compared with own-race faces). Previous studies, using self-report measures of prejudice, failed to find a relationship between prejudice and the other-race effect. We used an implicit prejudice measure, developed by Fazio, Jackson, Dunton, and Williams (1995), to determine whether implicit prejudice influences the size of the other-race effect. A self-report measure of prejudice, Walker's (1994) Attitudes to Asians Scale, was also included to replicate previous results. A group of 30 high prejudice and 30 low prejudice Caucasian participants, as determined by the self-report measure, were run through a procedure which assesses implicit prejudice and recognition performance at the same time. Neither implicit nor self-reported prejudice level influenced the size of the other-race effect. Unexpectedly, implicit and self-report prejudice influenced (in opposite ways) recognition of own-race faces. The implications of these results for understanding the other-race effect are discussed.
Ferguson
D P
DP
The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Australia.
Rhodes
G
G
Lee
K
K
Sriram
N
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics; D005145:Face / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011287:Prejudice; D011822:Race Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D044469:Racial Groups; D011930:Reaction Time; D013240:Stereotyping; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics