The other-race effect in children from a multiracial population: A cross-cultural comparison

Abstract

The role of experience with other-race faces in the development of the other-race effect was investigated through a cross-cultural comparison between 5- and 6-year-olds and 13- and 14-year-olds raised in a monoracial (British White, n=83) population and a multiracial (Malaysian Chinese, n=68) population. British White children showed an other-race effect to three other-race faces (Chinese, Malay, and African Black) that was stable across age. Malaysian Chinese children showed a recognition deficit for less experienced faces (African Black) but showed a recognition advantage for faces of which they have direct or indirect experience. Interestingly, younger (Malaysian Chinese) children showed no other-race effect for female faces such that they can recognize all female faces regardless of race. These findings point to the importance of early race and gender experiences in reorganizing the face representation to accommodate changes in experience across development.

Attention during Visual Preference Tasks: Relation to Caregiving and Face Recognition

“…Differences in how these infants attend to female and male faces might account for their more expert processing of females. In contrast, distributed caregiving infants showed only one correlation across tasks involving female faces, perhaps because their broader tuning toward both female and male faces results in their face processing not being as consistent or accurate compared with more narrowly tuned processing (as seen in children; Tham, Bremner, & Hay, ). Interestingly, when infants with female primary caregivers attended more to males’ internal facial features during the visual preference task, they showed stronger recognition of males in the face recognition task.…”

The Own-Race Bias for Face Recognition in a Multiracial Society

“…Considering its unique multiracial characteristics, Malaysia provides an interesting environment for face recognition research and a rich field area for studying ORB in the context of high interracial contact among the different race groups. Three recent studies have highlighted the unique cultural and racial diversity in Malaysia and how this can have a direct influence on face processing ability of own-and other-race faces in children (Su et al, 2017) and young adults (Tan et al, 2012;Estudillo et al, 2019). Su et al (2017) reported that Malaysian-Chinese children tested with four races of faces (Chinese, Malay, African, and Caucasian) showed reduced recognition of African faces, but similar recognition accuracy for Chinese, Malay, and Caucasian faces.…”

“…Three recent studies have highlighted the unique cultural and racial diversity in Malaysia and how this can have a direct influence on face processing ability of own-and other-race faces in children (Su et al, 2017) and young adults (Tan et al, 2012;Estudillo et al, 2019). Su et al (2017) reported that Malaysian-Chinese children tested with four races of faces (Chinese, Malay, African, and Caucasian) showed reduced recognition of African faces, but similar recognition accuracy for Chinese, Malay, and Caucasian faces. In another study, Tan et al (2012) reported that Malaysian-Chinese young adults performed equally well at recognizing East Asian and Western-Caucasian faces, but less well at recognizing African faces, which are not typically encountered in Malaysia.…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, studies investigating ORB in multiracial social settings are scarce (Goodman et al, 2007;Fioravanti-bastos et al, 2014;Su et al, 2017) and have produced inconsistent results. Goodman et al (2007) demonstrated that South Africans who grew up and lived in a highly multiethnic (African-Caucasian) society did not evince a smaller ORB than did Norwegians from a predominantly Caucasian population.…”

“…However, a few studies on individuals from multiracial societies have garnered some empirical support for the perceptual experience hypothesis, showing that ORB is reduced in multiracial populations, where other-race faces are frequently seen and individuated (e.g. Wright et al, 2003;Tan et al, 2012;Su et al, 2017).…”