The cross-category effect: mere social categorization is sufficient to elicit an own-group bias in face recognition.
Although the cross-race effect (CRE) is a well-established phenomenon, both perceptual-expertise and social-categorization models have been proposed to explain the effect. The two studies reported here investigated the extent to which categorizing other people as in-group versus out-group members is sufficient to elicit a pattern of face recognition analogous to that of the CRE, even when perceptual expertise with the stimuli is held constant. In Study 1, targets were categorized as members of real-life in-groups and out-groups (based on university affiliation), whereas in Study 2, targets were categorized into experimentally created minimal groups. In both studies, recognition performance was better for targets categorized as in-group members, despite the fact that perceptual expertise was equivalent for in-group and out-group faces. These results suggest that social-cognitive mechanisms of in-group and out-group categorization are sufficient to elicit performance differences for in-group and out-group face recognition.
Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA.
Michael J
MJ
Bernstein
Steven G
SG
Young
Kurt
K
Hugenberg
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D011287:Prejudice; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000523:psychology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012938:Social Perception; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology