Cross-race effect

The cross-race effect (sometimes called cross-race bias, other-race bias, own-race bias or other-race effect) is the tendency to more easily recognize faces that belong to one's own racial group. In social psychology, the cross-race effect is described as the "ingroup advantage," whereas in other fields, the effect can be seen as a specific form of the "ingroup advantage" since it is only applied in interracial or inter-ethnic situations. The cross-race effect is thought to contribute to difficulties in cross-race identification, as well as implicit racial bias. A number of theories as to why the cross-race effect exists have been conceived, including social cognition and perceptual expertise. However, no model has been able to fully account for the full body of evidence. The first research study on the cross-race effect was published in 1914. It stated that humans tend to perceive people of other races than themselves to all look alike. All else being equal, individuals of a given race are distinguishable from each other in proportion to their familiarity or contact with the race as a whole. This does not hold true when people of different races familiarize themselves with races different from their own. As research into the cross-race effect continued, multiple theories arose as to why the effect exists, including the contact hypothesis, different processing mechanisms, social cognition, feature selection, and cognitive disregard. However, each of these theories have their own challenges and conflicting evidence. Numerous studies on the cross-race effect have occurred. However, improvements in technology has allowed for researchers to study the cross-race effect from a neural and/or computational lens. Despite both occurring under the umbrella of facial processing, researchers have found that different areas of the brain activate when processing own-race vs other-race faces. Research using computational models have found that the other race effect only occurs when facial processing and feature selection is influenced by biased experience.