Visual attention to members of own and other groups: Preferences, determinants, and consequences

Abstract

Many current and past theories of social categorization acknowledge and even underline the critical role that visual processing plays in intergroup misperceptions and biases, yet research that directly measures or manipulates these processes is limited. In the present paper, we reviewed the current literature on visual attention to own and other group faces. First, we explored the development of preferential attention in face processing. Next, we examined these processes in adults and show different patterns of attention for own and other group faces. Although we briefly consider cross-cultural variations, the focus of this review is on within-culture differences in visual attention. In particular, we explore preferential attention to specific features on own versus other group faces and to their overall faces. We also discuss potential determinants for differential attention such as experience, threat, individuation and a desire to know ingroups, and liking. Finally, we explore the implications of differential attention to own and other groups. These consequences range from reduced recognition of other group faces, to impaired identification of emotional expressions, to impeded interaction intentions, and to increased discrimination. Together our analyses provide strong evidence for differences in attention to the faces and eyes of own versus other group members and their role in intergroup biases.

(Eye-) Tracking the Other-Race Effect: Comparison of Eye Movements During Encoding and Recognition of Ingroup Faces With Proximal and Distant Outgroup Faces

“…A recently growing number of studies have employed eye-tracking methodology to investigate if and how eye movements differ for ingroup versus outgroup faces, in order to better understand the underlying mechanism of the ORE (see also Kawakami, Friesen, & Vingilis-Jaremko, 2018, for a recent review). Eyetracking offers a straightforward approach to investigating processing differences of ingroup and outgroup faces, using fixations (i.e., states when the eyes remain fixated over a period of time) to derive a person's current focus of overt visual attention (Deubel & Schneider, 1996;Hoffman & Subramaniam, 1995).…”

I Don't See Race (or Conflict): Strategic Descriptions of Ambiguous Negative Intergroup Contexts

“…The authors suggested that one reason older children were more likely to avoid the use of race is because they wanted to escape the negative social consequences associated with appearing biased. Although a large literature has provided evidence that children attend to race from an early age, research has also demonstrated that racial color blindness increases as children learn social norms and are better able to regulate their behavior according to social expectations (Aboud, 2003;Anzures, Quinn, Pascalis, Slater, & Lee, 2010; for reviews see Kawakami, Friesen, & Vingilis-Jaremko, 2018;Kawakami, Hugenberg, & Dunham, 2019).…”

Attention and Working Memory Biases to Black and Asian Faces During Intergroup Contexts

“…Individuals tend to process racial ingroup and outgroup members differently and these differences have important implications for intergroup relations (Marcon et al, 2010; DeGutis et al, 2013; Hayward et al, 2013; Kawakami et al, 2014, 2018). For example, research shows that individuals tend to remember faces of their own race better than those of other races (i.e., own-race bias, cross-race effect) (for a review see Meissner and Brigham, 2001; Walker and Tanaka, 2003; Walker and Hewstone, 2006; Mondloch et al, 2010; Zhao et al, 2014; Wan et al, 2015).…”

“…While a large body of research has examined memory biases for racial ingroups and outgroups, fewer research has focused on attention biases to these groups. Examining attention biases to racial ingroups and outgroups is important because it has been implicated as a contributing factor in phenomena such as the own-race bias and interaction intentions with outgroup members (Hills and Lewis, 2006; Hugenberg et al, 2010; Hills and Pake, 2013; Kawakami et al, 2014, 2018; Zhou et al, 2015a,b). Additionally, some research suggests that early attention biases to Black relative to White faces may reflect an early vigilance to Black individuals due to stereotypes associating Black people with danger or threat (Trawalter et al, 2008).…”