The cross-race effect is mitigated by own-gender bias but not minimal groups or university affiliation

ABSTRACT

Two experiments tested whether the cross-race effect (CRE) was mitigated more effectively by the own-gender effect (OGE) than minimal group manipulations. In experiment one, White participants were randomly assigned to one of two colour teams. They studied 16 faces (divided as follows: Black female, White female, Black male, and White male) half which were visually identified as team members. Face gender, via the OGE, but not colour teams mitigated the CRE in female participants such that White male faces were more accurately recognized than Black male faces, while White and Black female faces were recognized equally well. Experiment two replicated experiment one and tested whether university affiliation was a promising CRE mitigator. Again, only face gender mitigated the CRE in female participants. These results suggest that at least in White female participants the CRE may be more effectively mitigated by the OGE compared to commonly used minimal group manipulations.

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-race effect
• face recognition
• face gender
• ingroup/outgroup model
• own-gender bias

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Materials and Data Set are available on the open science forum at DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/YU4HR.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by a summer undergraduate research fellowship grant and an undergraduate research inquiry grant from the office of undergraduate research and inquiry at the University of Tampa.