title: Relative influences of lightness and facial morphology on perceived race.
abstract: In a recent study (Brooks and Gwinn, 2010 Perception 39 1142-1145), the lightness contrast illusion was employed to study the influences of skin tone and facial morphology on race perception. The findings were rather counterintuitive: they suggested that skin tone does not play a major role in racial categorisation. To investigate this further, we used a parametric paradigm including five lightness levels, five morphing levels, and two face orientations. In accordance with Brooks and Gwinn, we found that race categorisation of African-American and Caucasian faces by Caucasian participants relied mainly on morphological cues. However, the relative influence of lightness increased when morphological information was ambiguous and when the faces were upside down. Overall, the results point to a flexible multicue-based mechanism underlying race perception.
authors: Centre de Recherche en Neuropsychologie et Cognition, Département de Psychologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada.
authors: Verena
authors: V
authors: Willenbockel
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Fiset
authors: James W
authors: JW
authors: Tanaka
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D001245:Association Learning; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005145:Face; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D012880:Skin Pigmentation; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*