The cross-race effect in lineup identifications by White, East Asian, and Hispanic individuals

The cross-race effect refers to poorer recognition of faces of another race compared to faces of one's own race. This research investigates this phenomenon in White, East Asian, and Hispanic participants, using a repeated measures lineup procedure. Each lineup was pilot tested using 223 undergraduate student participants. Study 1 on Amazon Mechanical Turk (n = 431) showed no significant own-race advantage, with all groups performing worst on Asian faces. Study 2 (n = 150) in Metro Vancouver involved community members where participants completed a survey measuring intergroup contact and social motivation to individuate faces. No group performed the best on own-race faces, and performance was not significantly associated with self-report of intergroup contact or social motivation. However, when White and Hispanic participants were combined into one "Non-Asian" group, an own-group advantage was found. The current study explores the cross-race effect and urges additional research using diverse groups and lineup paradigms.