Other-Groups Bias Effects: Recognizing Majority and Minority Outgroup Faces

Abstract

A large literature has provided evidence that intergroup biases are common in facial recognition. In investigations of faces of different races, research has repeatedly demonstrated an Own Race Bias in which people are more accurate in recognizing racial ingroup compared to outgroup members. The primary goal of this research was to investigate whether participants from typically underrepresented populations in social psychological research (i.e., Blacks, South Asians, and East Asians) show biases in recognition accuracy when presented with ingroup faces and minority and majority outgroup faces. Not surprisingly, across three experiments, participants demonstrated superior recognition for faces of members of their own compared to other races. Although minority participants also demonstrated greater recognition accuracy for majority compared to minority outgroup faces, these effects were much smaller and typically nonsignificant. The implications of these findings for our understanding of basic processes in face perception, and intergroup relations, are discussed.