Age and lineup type differences in the own-race bias

Abstract

The own-race bias (ORB) suggests that recognition for faces of one's own race is superior to recognition of other-race faces. A popular explanation for the ORB is amount of interracial contact, which may have cohort effects for older and younger adults. We compared White younger and older adults on the ORB utilizing a hybrid facial recognition and full diagnostic lineup (i.e., simultaneous and sequential target absent and target present lineups) paradigm. Both younger and older adults demonstrated an ORB. Signal detection estimates suggest younger adults compared to older adults have better discrimination accuracy for own-race over other-race faces. Interracial contact did not explain recognition for younger adults, but was related to a shift in response criterion for older adults.

Keywords:

• own-race bias
• older adults
• lineup type
• contact hypothesis
• signal detection

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by grants from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Layman Award awarded to the fourth author and the American Psychology-Law Society, Minority Affairs Committee, Access to Psychology and Law Experience (APPLE) Program awarded to the second author.