MATCHING FACES Differences in Processing Speed of Out-Group Faces by Different Ethnic Groups

Numerous studies have demonstrated an out-group processing deficit for faces of other ethnic groups (“cross-race effect” or “own-race bias”). Most studies have employed Blacks, Asians, and Whites. This study employed a perceptual matching task to investigate the out-group processing deficit with 128 Turkish and 128 Austrian children between the ages of 10 and 15 years studying Turkish and German faces. Participants were required to match a face (in three-quarter view) to the corresponding face in a 2 × 5 matrix of faces (in frontal view). As predicted from Sporer’s in-group/out-group model of face processing, there was an asymmetric interaction between ethnicity of participants and ethnicity of faces. Turkish children were faster in matching Turkish faces than were Austrian children, whereas there was no difference for German faces. Older children matched faces faster than younger children. Practical implications for matching of faces to photographs on identification cards or when searching for targets of other ethnic groups are discussed.