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Cross-Race Effect

Definition

The cross-race effect is a psychological phenomenon where individuals are better at recognizing faces of their own race compared with faces of other races.

Analogy

Think about it like this - if you're used to reading books in English, you'll be much quicker and more accurate at spotting typos in an English text than in a French one. Similarly, we're generally more adept at distinguishing features within our own racial group because that's what we're most familiar with.

Related terms

In-group Bias: This refers to the tendency to favor one's own group or those perceived as part of one's own group.

Out-group Homogeneity Bias: This is the perception that individuals in an out-group are more similar (homogeneous) than they really are, as well as being more similar than the members of the in-group.

Own-Race Bias: This term is synonymous with Cross-Race Effect and refers to the ability to recognize faces from one’s own race easier than faces from different races.