Nature and Nurture in Own-Race Face Processing

Authors: Bar-Haim, Yair¹; Ziv, Talee¹; Lamy, Dominique¹; Hodes, Richard M.²

Source: Psychological Science, Volume 17, Number 2, February 2006 , pp. 159-163(5)

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Abstract:

A standard visual preference task was used to examine 3-month-olds' looking times at own-race versus other-race faces as a function of environmental exposure to faces from the two categories. Participants were Caucasian infants living in a Caucasian environment, African infants living in an African environment, and African infants living in a predominantly Caucasian environment. The results indicate that preference for own-race faces is present as early as 3 months of age, but that this preference results from exposure to the prototypical facial environment.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01679.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of Psychology, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel, and 2: American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Publication date: 2006-02-01