Recognizing “Bella Swan” and “Hermione Granger”: No Own-Race Advantage in Recognizing Photos of Famous Faces

Abstract

We investigated recognition of familiar and unfamiliar own- and other-race faces across natural variability in appearance. Participants sorted 20 photographs of each of two identities into piles such that each pile contained all photographs of a single identity. The other-race effect was limited to unfamiliar faces. When faces were unfamiliar, participants perceived more identities when sorting other-race faces; when faces were familiar, participants made two piles for both own- and other-race faces. Our work calls for rethinking the concept of the other-race effect.

Keywords

other-race effect familiar face recognition variability perceptual experience

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