Department of Psychology, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK.
Sci Rep. 2022 Jul 29;12(1):13088. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-17330-9.
A dominant theory of the other race effect (ORE) is that group-bias causes us to process own-race and other-race faces using different cognitive processes. To test this theory, we measured individual differences across two face recognition tasks. Our predictions were that the magnitude and pattern of performance on own-race faces would not predict performance on other-race faces and that participants would take more time with own-race faces. In a face matching task, we found that participants were more accurate with own-race faces compared to other-race faces. However, performance on own-race faces was highly correlated with performance on other-race faces. In a face sorting task, participants made fewer piles and fewer errors (i.e. higher accuracy) with own-race faces compared to other-race faces. However, we again found that performance on own-race faces was highly correlated with performance on other-race faces. The covariation in performance between own-race and other-race faces suggests that they engage similar perceptual processes. Finally, we found that participants did not spend more time on tasks involving own-race faces suggesting that different levels of motivation do not explain the ORE. Together, these findings argue against the idea that group bias leads to different perceptual processing of own-race and other-race faces.
一种占主导地位的异族效应（ORE）理论认为，群体偏见导致我们使用不同的认知过程来处理本族裔和异族裔的面孔。为了检验这一理论，我们在两项面孔识别任务中测量了个体差异。我们的预测是，在本族裔面孔上的表现的幅度和模式不会预测在异族裔面孔上的表现，而且参与者在本族裔面孔上会花费更多的时间。在面孔匹配任务中，我们发现参与者在识别本族裔面孔时比识别异族裔面孔更加准确。然而，在本族裔面孔上的表现与在异族裔面孔上的表现高度相关。在面孔分类任务中，与异族裔面孔相比，参与者用本族裔面孔完成的分类更少，错误也更少（即准确率更高）。然而，我们再次发现，在本族裔面孔上的表现与在异族裔面孔上的表现高度相关。本族裔和异族裔面孔之间表现的协变表明它们涉及相似的感知过程。最后，我们发现参与者在涉及本族裔面孔的任务上没有花费更多的时间，这表明不同的动机水平并不能解释 ORE。综上所述，这些发现反对群体偏见导致本族裔和异族裔面孔的感知处理不同的观点。
