Cross-race effect (sometimes called cross-race bias, other-race bias or own-race bias) is the tendency for people of one race to have difficulty recognizing and processing faces and facial expressions of members of a race or ethnic group other than their own.[1]
The cross-race effect is scientifically explored in the fields of behavioral biology, human ethology (also called urban ethology), and social psychology. In this neural phenomenon of face recognition, humans perform better when they recognize faces and emotional facial expressions of persons of their own race in comparison to faces and emotional facial expressions of persons of other races. In Social Psychology, the cross-race effect is described as the "In-Group Advantage". In other fields, the effect can be seen as a special form of the "In-group advantage", since it is only applied in interracial or inter-ethnic situations, whereas “In-Group Advantage” can refer to mono-ethnic situations as well.[2]
Deeper study of the cross-race effect has also demonstrated two types of processing for the recognition of faces: featural and holistic. It has been found that holistic processing (which occurs beyond individual parts of the face) is more commonly used in same-race situations, but there is an experience effect, which means that as a person gains more experience with those of race he or she will begin to use more holistic processing. Featural processing is much more commonly used regarding an unfamiliar stimulus or face.[3]
note from OP:
This is a fascinating 'phenomenon', which I have studied in depth as it applies to highly flawed law enforcement eye witness identifications.
Above pulled from Wikipedia.
The cross-race effect is scientifically explored in the fields of behavioral biology, human ethology (also called urban ethology), and social psychology. In this neural phenomenon of face recognition, humans perform better when they recognize faces and emotional facial expressions of persons of their own race in comparison to faces and emotional facial expressions of persons of other races. In Social Psychology, the cross-race effect is described as the "In-Group Advantage". In other fields, the effect can be seen as a special form of the "In-group advantage", since it is only applied in interracial or inter-ethnic situations, whereas “In-Group Advantage” can refer to mono-ethnic situations as well.[2]
Deeper study of the cross-race effect has also demonstrated two types of processing for the recognition of faces: featural and holistic. It has been found that holistic processing (which occurs beyond individual parts of the face) is more commonly used in same-race situations, but there is an experience effect, which means that as a person gains more experience with those of race he or she will begin to use more holistic processing. Featural processing is much more commonly used regarding an unfamiliar stimulus or face.[3]
note from OP:
This is a fascinating 'phenomenon', which I have studied in depth as it applies to highly flawed law enforcement eye witness identifications.
Above pulled from Wikipedia.
